Amid withdrawal plan of NATO forces from Afghanistan, our neighboring and regional countries are mulling over extending their roles in the country. As it seems so, the Afghan government is also putting efforts to maintain a 'friendly relationship' with India, Pakistan, Iran and China, Gulf States and central Asian countries.
As the western countries will be diminishing their roles, Afghanistan would need regional countries' support to keep its security and economy moving towards better. It is the regional countries that can better help Afghanistan resolve issues with Taliban and attain long term peace and stability.
Post-2014 stability of Afghanistan is crucial for this country maintain the gains it has had over the last decade with the support from international community. For that, political settlement with Taliban is being preferred over continuing fight against them.
In the last few years, the Karzai administration has been attempting to persuade Taliban leadership into table talks and resolve the Afghan war. Taliban have shown a tough resistance to calls for negotiations. Despite soft stance of Afghan government, they have continued shedding blood of innocent people. Nonetheless, it is not so that talking with them is impossible.
With genuine support from Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, who are believed to have significant influence over Taliban leadership, resolving the Afghan war through negotiation is possible. What President Karzai believes is that without cooperation from Pakistan rooting out terrorism would not be possible.
Saudi Arabia has the same important role as that of Pakistan. Saudi Arabia has recently said it will broker peace talks between Afghan government and Taliban leadership. High Peace Council (HPC) has welcomed this and has said that Saudia Arabia's role impact the peace process positively.
Mohammad Ismail Qasimyar HPC's International Relations Advisor said, "We welcome the commitments by Saudi Arabia and hope that Saudi Arabia's cooperation will lead to a success and we are hoping to see practical steps by that country for its commitments towards Afghan peace talks."
HPC has time and again requested Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to cooperate in persuading Taliban to talk. However, despite the so-many promises, no significant measure has yet been taken any of the two countries. Continuation of war in Afghanistan is posing serious threats to regional and global. Instability in this country is making environment feasible to insurgency and extremism to grow. This is high time for Islamic countries to help Afghanistan come out of the chaos it is facing.