Moscow Format Successful In Letting Taliban Directly Express Views - Pakistani Official

(@FahadShabbir)

Moscow Format Successful in Letting Taliban Directly Express Views - Pakistani Official

The Moscow format consultations on Afghanistan have been successful in providing an international platform for the Taliban movement to voice their views directly, Muhemmed Aejaz, the additional secretary for Afghanistan and West Asia at the Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told Sputnik.

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th November, 2018) The Moscow format consultations on Afghanistan have been successful in providing an international platform for the Taliban movement to voice their views directly, Muhemmed Aejaz, the additional secretary for Afghanistan and West Asia at the Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told Sputnik.

"At least it is the first time that Taliban have said all this on an international forum. We have been hearing all this maybe through their spokespersons, maybe through some statements, by directly listening from them in a situation where people could maybe react to what they were saying, that is the achievement. So, Moscow format has achieved that," Aejaz, head of the Pakistan delegation at the second round of Moscow format talks, said when asked about the Taliban's intentions to refrain from initiating direct talks with the government before the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan.

He stressed that the Taliban being present at a negotiations table was an important development in the talks.

"So whatever they have said today is important and it will perhaps reach all concerned with a more official formal way because when you are present around a negotiation table as political entity that has a lot more powerful meaning than as an entity speaking from a distance maybe through the media. That is the achievement today," Aejaz said.

On Friday, Moscow hosts the second round of negotiations on Afghanistan. The talks involve the Afghan High Peace Council and, for the first time, the political office of the Taliban Islamist group in Doha. Representatives from China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and the United States have also been invited to join the meeting.