Saudi Arabia Mediated Pak-Afghan Truce Talk Fails In Riyadh: Report | World News

NEW DELHI: Amid renewed efforts by Saudi Arabia to broker a ceasefire between Kabul and Islamabad, talks between the hostile neighbors in Riyadh have again yielded no results, a media outlet covering Afghanistan said on Monday.

In a report on the media website, which mainly covers current news from Afghanistan, “Sources confirmed to Afghanistan International that a Taliban delegation went to Saudi Arabia to meet with Pakistani officials. According to information received by Afghanistan International, these talks did not yield results and failed again.” The statement was included.

However, there has been no official confirmation yet regarding the outcome of the last round of negotiations mediated by Saudi Arabia.

Previously, negotiating teams from Afghanistan and Pakistan had tried to address the issue in talks mediated by Türkiye and Qatar but could not reach consensus on the ways and means of a possible long-term ceasefire.

The two countries share an unstable border that has seen intense clashes for more than a month, and Islamabad has allegedly resorted to numerous airstrikes inside Afghanistan.

Islamabad accused the Afghan Taliban regime of harboring elements hostile to it and carrying out deadly attacks on Pakistani territory.

All the while, Kabul refuses to offer any assistance in accommodating such groups and accuses Islamabad of evacuating Afghan refugees from Pakistan and deporting them across the border in their thousands into a country facing financial and infrastructural difficulties.

At the first meeting held in Doha on 18-19 October, Afghanistan and Pakistan agreed on a temporary ceasefire, but no consensus was reached on the methods in the two meetings held later in Istanbul.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan’s Tolo News reported late on November 30 that the disputed Durand Line border remained closed for “47 days” due to commercial crossings into Pakistan.

“Due to ongoing tensions between the two countries, there is still no sign of the routes being reopened or the stopped goods being released,” the report said.

The Afghan Ministry of Economy “once again called on neighboring countries to separate political issues from trade and economic relations with Afghanistan,” adding: “The Ministry emphasized that the closure of border crossings could cause serious economic damage to both sides.”

It was reported that the Pakistan-Afghanistan Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry expressed concern, saying that the suspension of commercial goods caused significant losses for traders in both countries.

Despite the Pakistan-Saudi Strategic Mutual Defense Agreement, which Islamabad dismisses as a major achievement of its foreign policy, even during the height of the conflict, Riyadh did not enter the conflict either militarily or diplomatically.

But he urges warring countries to show restraint and reduce existing tensions.

Meanwhile, according to Islamabad, the defense agreement with Saudi Arabia included a binding clause to join the other in case the partner was attacked by any power.

Additionally, the official statement on November 9 stated that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced that Turkey’s Foreign and Defense Ministers and the Chief of Intelligence were expected to travel to Pakistan that week (ending on November 16) to discuss Islamabad’s inconclusive ceasefire talks with Afghanistan.

However, according to reports, this visit did not take place.