News Analysis: Afghan analyst pins little hope on Russia's efforts to solve Afghan conflict

Russia, Pakistan and China held a trilateral meeting in Moscow in late December 2016 to discuss the lingering conflict in Afghanistan and try to find a solution to the protracted turbulence in the South Asian region.

The participants in the trilateral conference, besides calling for a negotiated settlement on the Afghan crisis, had also appealing for a delisting of Taliban leaders from the United Nations' terrorist black list.

This was the first time since the withdrawal of the former Soviet Union forces from Afghanistan in 1998 that Russia had held such a conference on Afghanistan in a bid to find a solution to the Afghan imbroglio.

Similarly, before hosting the trilateral conference on Afghanistan in Moscow, Russian special envoy to Afghanistan Zamir Kablov, according to media reports, had confirmed his country's contact with the Taliban, advocating that the Taliban as a potent force can beat the emerging Islamic State threats along the border with the Russian allies of the Central Asian states bordering Afghanistan.

"The Moscow-held trilateral talks on Afghanistan would have no impact on reducing the war and militancy in Afghanistan," political expert Nazari Pariani told Xinhua.

Pariani, who is the editor-in-chief of the Daily Mandegar newspaper, also said that the Russian contact with the Taliban would further complicate the already complicated peace process in Afghanistan.

He also argued that since many Taliban militants had fought the former Red Army soldiers during the then Soviet Union occupation of Afghanistan, they would oppose contact with Russia on Afghanistan.

The analyst also explained that the Afghan government had softly rejected Russia's contact with the Taliban and holding the trilateral talks with the participation of China and Pakistan in Moscow.

Afghan foreign ministry spokesman Ahmad Shekib Mostaghni, in reaction to the Afghan talks in late 2016, cautioned that "no talks on Afghanistan could succeed without its participation," noting that no one represented Afghanistan in the talks held in Moscow.

The well-respected analyst also argued that the Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG), which includes Afghanistan, Pakistan, the United States and China, has failed to deliver any tangible results though it had held several meetings.

It proves that it would be very difficult for the trilateral meeting of Russia, Pakistan and China to yield substantial results, Pariani believed.

"Russia, as a rival of the United States, by bringing Pakistan, a major ally of the United States in the region, and China is obviously attempting to form a regional power, while Pakistan by siding with Russia at this stage wants to demonstrate its importance in the region and particularly on the Afghan issue," the analyst said. Endit