Afghanistan’s Taliban government announced on Saturday that the recent peace talks with Pakistan held in Turkey had collapsed, attributing the failure to Islamabad’s perceived “irresponsible and uncooperative” stance. Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesperson for the Taliban government, expressed disappointment on social media, highlighting that the Pakistani delegation shifted the burden of security responsibility onto Afghanistan while showing reluctance to take accountability for both Afghanistan’s and their own security. This attitude, according to Mujahid, rendered the talks unproductive.
Pakistan refrained from immediate commentary on the matter. Information Minister Attaullah Tarar had hinted a day earlier that the negotiations were faltering, emphasizing that the Afghan government needed to fulfill its commitments to combat terrorism, which, as per Tarar, they had not achieved thus far. Tarar underscored Pakistan’s commitment to employing all necessary measures to protect its people and sovereignty.
The discussions took place in Istanbul on Thursday, aiming to finalize a ceasefire agreement reached on October 19 in Qatar following the deadliest confrontations between the two nations since the Taliban regained power in Afghanistan in 2021.