GEO-POLITICS - AFGHAN PAK :: Afghanistan, Pakistan Leader to Hold Icebreaking Talks in Paris

SOURCE 
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2015/11/mil-151129-voa01.htm?_m=3n%2e002a%2e1577%2eka0ao00b2h%2e1g5z

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/pakistan/forel-afghan.htm

          Afghanistan, Pakistan Leaders 

         to Hold Icebreaking Talks in Paris

In-Depth Coverage

                                by

                          Ayaz Gul 

November 29, 2015

Leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan are expected to hold an "icebreaking" meeting on the margins of the U.N.climate change summit that starts Monday in Paris.

Pakistani officials and a group of senior Pashtun nationalist leaders, who returned Sunday from Afghanistan, told VOA that Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has agreed to meet with Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Paris, breaking a deadlock in relations.

The two sides are expected to discuss ways to ease bilateral tensions and jointly work for the resumption of stalled peace talks between the Afghan government and Taliban officials, they added.

"The meting is likely in Paris on the margins of [the] climate change conference," Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman Qazi Khalilullah told VOA.

Pakistan negotiated and hosted a single groundbreaking meeting between Taliban and Afghan delegates in July in an effort to help bring an end to the 14-old conflict in Afghanistan.

But the nascent peace process was disrupted when it was revealed days later that reclusive, longtime Taliban leader Mullah Omar had died two years ago.

Since then, the insurgent group has increased attacks across Afghanistan, and Afghan leaders, including Ghani, increasingly blame Pakistan for being behind the violence, charges Islamabad rejects.

While the Pakistani government was working through official diplomatic channels to arrange the Ghani-Sharif meeting, the breakthrough was apparently made possible by the Pashtun delegation that was invited to Kabul by President Ghani to discuss ways to ease tensions and move the Afghan reconciliation process forward.

A member of the delegation, Afrasiyab Khattak, told VOA Sunday that Ghani accepted their request to meet with Sharif.

"They had their reservations after the collapse of the last process [of talks between Taliban and Afghan officials], but we just requested them to open the gate for talking," Khattak said.

The Pashtun ethnic group has sizable populations in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Afghanistan alleges that Taliban commanders and fighters use Pakistani soil for plotting and conducting insurgent activities on its side of the border.

Islamabad insists it has long abandoned that policy and is using its influence, though limited, to persuade the insurgents to end fighting and open reconciliation talks with the Afghan government, saying instability in the neighboring country also threatens Pakistan.

President Ghani has also been under rising criticism at home for failing to contain the Taliban insurgency, which has greatly expanded its areas of activity during this fighting season.

Further Reading

Pashtun Tribes Durand Line Taleban

Foreign Relations - Afghanistan

Pakistan's relations with Afghanistan, its Muslim neighbor to the northwest, have never been easy. Pakistan's boundary with Afghanistan is about 2,250 kilometers long. In the north, it runs along the ridges of the Hindu Kush (meaning Hindu Killer) mountains and the Pamirs, where a narrow strip of Afghan territory called the Wakhan Corridor extends between Pakistan and Tajikistan. The Hindu Kush was traditionally regarded as the last northwestern outpost where Hindus could venture in safety.

In 1893, Sir Mortimer Durand negotiated an agreement with Amir Abdur Rahman Khan of Afghanistan to fix an only partially surveyed line (the Durand Line) running from Chitral to Balochistan to designate the areas of influence for the Afghans and the British. Each party pledged not to interfere in each other's lands. This agreement brought under British domination territory and peoples that had not yet been conquered and would become the source of much difficulty between Pakistan and Afghanistan in the future.

When Pakistan was admitted to the UN, only Afghanistan cast a negative vote, the result of Afghanistan's refusal to accept the Durand Line as its border with Pakistan. The Durand Line was not in doubt when Pakistan became independent in 1947, although its legitimacy was in later years disputed periodically by the Afghan government as well as by Pakhtun tribes straddling the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

On the one hand, Afghanistan claimed that the Durand Line had been imposed by a stronger power upon a weaker one. On the other hand, Pakistan, as the legatee of the British in the region, insisted on the legality and permanence of the boundary. This border divides the Pakhtu or Pashto-speaking people of the region. Afghanistan promoted secessionist movements among the Pakhtuns in Pakistan, calling for the creation of an independent Pashtunistan or Pakhtunistan or, alternatively, for Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province to join Afghanistan.

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, however, had a profound effect on Pakistan's geopolitical situation. Pakistan became a frontline state in the Cold War. Altogether more than 3 million Afghan refugees fled to Pakistan, and the country became a base for mujahidin fighting against the Soviet forces and the Afghan communists. Pakistan also became a conduit for military assistance by the United States and others to the mujahidin.

The refugee burden, even if offset in part by foreign assistance, created dangerous pressures within Pakistani society. Afghan and Soviet forces conducted raids against mujahidin bases inside Pakistan, and a campaign of terror bombings and sabotage in Pakistan's cities, guided by Afghan intelligence agents, caused hundreds of casualties. In 1987 some 90 percent of the 777 terrorist incidents recorded worldwide took place in Pakistan. The actual danger to Pakistan, however, was probably never very great.

After the Soviet Union completed its troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in February 1989, warfare continued between the mujahidin and the Afghan communist government in Kabul. The demise of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, however, resulted in a reassessment of Pakistan's foreign policy, particularly in light of the sweeping restructuring of central and southwest Asia. The Afghan resistance had been unable to unseat the Kabul regime. The heavy burden of the Afghan refugees continued, and Pakistan wanted to be in a position to establish linkages with the newly emerging Central Asian republics of the former Soviet Union. Pakistan decided in early 1992 to press for a politicalsettlement. The communist government in Kabul was ousted in May 1992 and replaced by a fragile coalition of various mujahidin factions. But the coalition did not include the most radical of the Islamist mujahidin leaders, Gulbaddin Hikmatyar.

In March 1993, the government of Nawaz Sharif brokered an agreement between President Burhanuddin Rabbani of Afghanistan and Hikmatyar, Rabbani's longtime enemy, to share power in Afghanistan for eighteen months and then hold elections. Under the agreement, Rabbani would remain president, Hikmatyar would become prime minister, and they would choose government ministers together. A cease-fire was also to be implemented. It remains, however, for the agreement to be ratified by the leaders of all Muslim groups involved in the war. In 1994 fighting between mujahidin groups escalated in Kabul, and a new flood of refugees moved toward the Pakistani border.

Continued turmoil in Afghanistan prevented the refugees from returning to their country. In 1999, more than 1.2 million registered Afghan refugees remained in Pakistan. Pakistan was one of three countries to recognize the Taliban regime of Afghanistan. International pressure after September 11, 2001, prompted Pakistan to reassess its relations with the Taliban regime and support the U.S. and international coalition in Operation Enduring Freedom to remove the Taliban from power. Pakistan has publicly expressed its support to Afghanistan's President Karzai and has pledged $100 million toward Afghanistan's reconstruction. Both nations are also working to strengthen cooperation and coordination along their shared rugged border.