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Pakistan says quartet framework on Afghanistan still intact

Xinhua, June 3, 2016 Adjust font size:

Pakistan said the quartet on peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan is still intact and that political negotiation is the best option to solve the years of conflict.

The comments came on Thursday amid speculations about the fate of the Quadrilateral Coordination Group of Afghanistan, China, Pakistan and the United States.

"A politically negotiated settlement among all stakeholders, including Taliban, is the best and sustainable solution for peace in Afghanistan, for which the QCG has a very important role to play. The QCG mechanism is very much in place," the Pakistan Foreign Ministry said.

The QCG met last month in Islamabad and agreed to push for the political negotiation to find out solution to the problem.

"All members of the QCG including Afghanistan have been supporting the QCG and consider it a useful forum for facilitating the Afghan peace process. Therefore, Pakistan believes that a politically negotiated settlement is a viable option for achieving the goal of peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan," spokesperson Nafees Zikriya said.

Zikriya said the use of military force and violence has not provided a solution to the conflict in Afghanistan for the last 15 years.

"It is unlikely to bring peace in future as well. We believe that the military approach will further destabilize Afghanistan. We have repeatedly said that all parties at war should refrain from violence since violence begets violence," he said.

To a question about Pakistan's decision to introduce a new border management that requires Afghans to carry travel documents for entering Pakistan, he said it is vital for checking infiltrations across the long and porous Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

"The Afghan government's cooperation in this regard is important for strengthening mutual security," the spokesman said after Afghan gov't raised objections to the decision.

Illegal cross-border movement had been an issue between the two neighbors as militants would take advantage of the porous 2,600-km border to move across the border. Endit