Peace Talks

Another effort to revive the peaces talks for the Afghan conflict is now underway. President Ghani (Afghanistan) and Prime Minister Sharif (Pakistan) met during this past week while attending the climate conference in Paris. Certainly one topic discussed by the two national leaders during there one-on-one conversation was restarting peace talks. (Tolo News, Nov 30, 2015).

Pakistan has been playing both sides for quite a while now; supporting the Taliban yet feigning cooperation with the U.S. and Afghanistan . . . and this is known by the Afghan government as well as the U.S. military and intelligence services. The Pakistanis have a lot of influence over the Taliban - some say enough to force them to come to the peace table; but the long-term objective of Pakistan is to keep Afghanistan an unstable environment mired in conflict. This ensures that a second strategic front (think about a war with India) does not come into being. So the chances of peace talks actually getting anything done? Not so much.

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