Informal Afghanistan\u2013Pakistan talks aimed at dialling down tensions between Kabul and Islamabad have begun in Istanbul, with Qatar and Turkiye playing a facilitating role, sources told The Express Tribune on Thursday.<\/p>\n
According to participants, the first meeting was arranged by a Turkish organisation, which invited political figures, policy experts, journalists, and former diplomats from both countries to take part in the discussions.<\/p>\n
The Afghan delegation included former diplomat Atif Mashal, Obaidullah Bahir (grandson of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar), Jafar Mahdavi\u00a0and Ghuncha Gul. Pakistan was\u00a0represented by former special envoy for Afghanistan Asif Durrani, ex-senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed, senior journalist Hamid Mir\u00a0and Senator Sitara Ayaz.<\/p>\n
Sources familiar with the meeting said both sides agreed on the need to work towards de-escalation and reducing tensions between the two countries. However, they added that the process still lacked\u00a0a formal mandate, while Turkiye and Qatar continued to support peace efforts.<\/p>\n
The discussions were being held under a \u201cTrack 1.5\u201d format, involving former officials, experts\u00a0and individuals close to policymaking circles. This framework allows informal exchanges on sensitive issues without binding diplomatic commitments.<\/p>\n
According to organisers, the focus of the dialogue was on addressing the root causes of tensions and exploring practical ways to improve relations between Kabul and Islamabad.<\/p>\n
Sources further said that this was the fourth such initiative involving regional and international stakeholders, including engagements in China, Saudi Arabia, Doha\u00a0and Istanbul.<\/p>\n
They added that despite recent border skirmishes, the ceasefire situation remained\u00a0intact and no major escalation was reported through official channels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Informal Afghanistan\u2013Pakistan talks aimed at dialling down tensions between Kabul and Islamabad have begun in Istanbul, with Qatar and Turkiye playing a facilitating role, sources told The Express Tribune on Thursday. According to participants, the first meeting was arranged by a Turkish organisation, which invited political figures, policy experts, journalists, and former diplomats from both …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4145,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4140"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4146,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4140\/revisions\/4146"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}