Relations Break Down Between Afghanistan, Pakistan

Afghanistan Deputy Foreign Minister, Jawed Ludin, said Wednesday that Afghan officials in Kabul "are in a bit of a state of shock at once again being confronted by the depth of Pakistan's complacency" toward peace negotiations with the Taliban, and that Afghanistan is ready to move forward on the talks without Pakistani involvement (Reuters). Pakistan is widely seen to be a key player in the peace talks because of its historical ties to militant groups and the presence of many top insurgent leaders on Pakistani soil.

In a separate (but perhaps intentionally timed) interview with the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, President Hamid Karzai's chief of staff Abdel Karim Khurram said that a recent trilateral summit with Pakistani and British leaders in England last month "demonstrated the interfering but delusional tendency of some in Pakistan who choose to ignore Afghanistan's sovereignty…and continue to want to…re-exert control in Afghanistan through armed proxies" (WSJ). Khurram said the Afghan government has rejected as unacceptable the preconditions for moving forward on Taliban negotiations outlined by Pakistan at the U.K. summit.

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