KABUL: Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai has set conditions for Pakistan’s invitation to visit Islamabad for any high-level talks designed to mend increasingly frosty relations between the two neighboring countries.
Pakistan’s premier advisor on Foreign Affairs and National Security Sartaj Aziz reached in Afghanistan on Sunday to offer Islamabad’s further assistance to Afghanistan’s efforts to reach a deal with Taliban insurgents to end 12 years of war.
Aziz held talks with Afghan Foreign Minister Zalmai Rassoul and met Karzai to deliver in person the invitation from new Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif — already extended twice by telephone.
Karzai accepted the invitation “in principle,” the Afghan president’s office said on Monday.
But he said a high-ranking delegation could visit Pakistan only when the agenda is specified, initial preparations have been made and a “serious and effective struggle against terrorism and the peace process are on the top of the agenda”.
