AFGHANISTAN: President of Mohammad Ashraf Ghani has said that Afghanistan has a specific stance for peace and no deal would be made on its independence and constitution. While talking to a gathering of local government officials and representatives of the eastern region on Sunday, he said first round of discussions for peace talks is going to be held tomorrow and ...

AFGHANISTAN: The preparatory or quadrilateral meeting of Afghanistan, Pakistan, the United States and China for talks with Taliban would be held  in Islamabad on Monday. Afghanistan would be represented by Deputy Foreign Minister Hekmat Khalil Karzai and Pakistan by Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry. The U.S. and China would be reportedly represented by their special representatives for Afghanistan and Pakistan region. The conference ...

KABUL: In his daily news conference, the White House’s Press Secretary, Josh Earnest told newsmen that President Barack Obama had been informed regarding causalities of US troops caused in Afghanistan fighting. “This does underscore that Afghanistan is a dangerous place,” he said. A US troop was killed and two more were wounded in hours-long fighting in southern Helmand province on ...

TEHRAN: Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr. Abdullah Abdullah has said that terrorism posed a threat both to Iran and Afghanistan, as well as the region at large. At the head of a high-level delegation, the CEO arrived in Tehran on a three-day visit on Monday afternoon for talks with senior Iranian officials on issues of bilateral interest. A member of ...

AFGHANISTAN: Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in a telephone conversation on Monday that India would always stand by the people of Afghanistan despite attacks like the one on the Indian consulate in Mazar-e-Sharif this week. On Monday, Ghani briefed Modi on the terror attack in Mazar-e-Sharif, a statement from Modi’s office said. The PM expressed deep ...

PESHAWAR: The Hezb-i-Islami Afghanistan (HIA), led by Gulbadin Hekmatyar, has renewed its call for a negotiated settlement of the conflict in Afghanistan. A senior leader of the party, the second largest resistance group behind the Taliban, wants the Afghan government to hold parleys with all militant outfits. In an exclusive interview with Pajhwok Afghan News, Dr Ghairat Baheer suggested the ...

KABUL: Some analysts believe severed relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran could be a challenge for Afghanistan as both the regional rivals would try to weaken each other’s influence in Afghanistan. Ideological differences between Saudi and Iran are historic, but relations between them disrupted on Sunday when Saudi Arabia announced it had cut ties with Iran and fellow-Sunni Bahrain followed ...

KABUL – President Ashraf Ghani on Thursday said that international meetings next month to lay the groundwork for a possible resumption of peace talks with the Taliban had to seek an approach to the fractured insurgent movement that ensured a rejection of terrorism. Prospects of success have been clouded by bloody infighting in the Taliban over the leadership succession which ...

KABUL: The High Peace Council (HPC) on Saturday hoped the presence of the United States and China in the Afghan peace talks would yield result and make Pakistan to meet its pledges. The body’s acting chairman, Abdul Hakim Mujahid, said the second phase of peace talks would be different from the first round held in July last year, adding that ...

AFGHANISTAN: In a statement to the Afghan ambassador to Pakistan, Shireen M. Mazari, spokesperson for the chairman of Pakistan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf Imran Khan, said on Saturday that misunderstandings had arisen out of a remark about the treatment of an Afghan Taliban leader at the Shaukat Khanum cancer hospital in Lahore. This came after media reports emerged Saturday that Khan reportedly confirmed ...