Pakistan on Friday said that it has handed over "evidence-based" and "logical demands" to the mediators — Turkiye and Qatar during the third round of peace talks being held in Istanbul with the Afghan Taliban regime. Pakistan and the Afghan Taliban resumed the third round of talks in Istanbul on Thursday to tackle the issue of cross-border terrorism and avoid further escalation between the two sides.
Foreign Office Spokesperson Tahir Hussain Andrabi said that talks with the Afghan Taliban regime commenced in Istanbul on Thursday in the presence and with the participation of mediators. "The Pakistan delegation has handed over its evidence-based, justified, and logical demands to the mediators with a singular aim to put an end to cross-border terrorism,” Andrabi said while addressing his weekly media briefing here.
"The mediators fully endorsed Pakistan's stance on the basis of evidence provided by our side, as well as the tenets of international law and principles,” he said, adding that the mediators were discussing Pakistan's demands point by point with the Afghan delegation. Andrabi said any other information being circulated on social media, particularly from Afghan handlers or Afghan accounts, is either pure speculation or deliberate disinformation.
He also said that Pakistan's demand to the Afghan Taliban regime was simple: that it should stop the infiltrators from operating from Afghan soil. The third round of talks had begun in Istanbul to defuse tension between Islamabad and Kabul that erupted in an open border conflict last month. Earlier, the two sides failed to agree on the contentious issues during the two rounds of talks held on October 19 in Doha and October 25 in Istanbul. Both sides reported human losses during the clashes from October 11-15, which were brought under control after a temporary ceasefire that was extended and is still holding.
