A planned meeting between Taliban and Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan has been reportedly canceled after Afghan government lodged a complaint with the UN Security Council, calling it recognition of the militant group.
Sources within the group, however, told BBC Pashto service that the scheduled talks were called off due to the opposition from Taliban’s supreme leader Mullah Haibatullah.
The sources said that Taliban delegation would not travel to Islamabad to visit Pakistani officials.
After reports emerged about the cancelation, Taliban in a short statement confirmed it, saying the reason behind the postponement was the travel ban on Taliban leaders. The statement read that Taliban cannot be blamed for the inconvenience.
Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement on February 13 that their Qatar office representatives had been officially invited by Pakistan to visit the country’s prime minister.
Afghan government says Pakistan’s invitation to Taliban is a clear violation of Afghanistan’s national sovereignty.
Sibghat Ahmadi, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), on Sunday said such a move also gave “recognition” to the Taliban.
He said that the Pakistani government did not consult with Afghan government over such a meeting and that Afghanistan has the right to protest such a move.
On Friday, the Afghan government lodged an official complaint with the United Nations about the planned meeting.
The Afghan government argued that the Taliban officials invited to Pakistan are blacklisted by the UN and have a travel ban against them. Government said this was a clear violation of UN resolutions and international law.
“It is a clear violation of the sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. The national sovereignty is our redline, so we will deal with the issue from various forums. The Pakistanis did not coordinate this with us, this is somehow in recognition of the Taliban,” said MoFA spokesman Sibghat Ahmadi.
“Yes, we have lodged a complaint with the UN over a trip by the Taliban delegation to Islamabad and the meeting with Pakistan’s top official; there are UN sanctions against members of the Taliban delegation which does not allow them to travel,” added Ahmadi.
This comes as reconciliation efforts have picked momentum on the part of various stakeholders, including the US.
On February 7, the Afghan government lodged a similar complaint with the UN over a recent trip by members of the Taliban to Moscow.
The Afghan government said that Russia allowed the group’s members to enter the country despite them being on the UN’s blacklist.
Led by Taliban’s chief negotiator Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, ten senior officials from the group travelled to Moscow for talks with Afghan politicians.
The meeting in Moscow continued for two days on February 4 and 5 and then a joint declaration was issued by the delegates in which they outlined a nine-point approach to promote “intra-Afghan” dialogue aimed at finding a political settlement to the conflict in the country.
