US envoy, Pakistan army chief discuss Afghan peace process

By Aamir Latif

KARACHI, Pakistan

Richard Olson, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, called on Pakistani army chief Raheel Sharif on Monday to discuss efforts aimed at resuming stalled peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban.

Olson, who served as U.S. ambassador in Islamabad before his current appointment, met Sharif at Pakistani army headquarters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi just one day after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visited the Afghan capital of Kabul.

While in Kabul Kerry had called on the Taliban to return to negotiations despite recent orders by Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mansoor to his fighters to prepare for a "decisive" summer offensive.

Last July, Pakistan brokered a landmark first round of direct talks in Islamabad between Kabul and the Taliban, but negotiations broke down after the group announced the death of longtime leader Mullah Omar, triggering a bitter internecine power struggle.

Since then, several attempts to resume the stalled peace process have been made by a four-nation group comprised of Pakistan, Afghanistan, the U.S. and China.

Until, now, however, these attempts have failed to bear fruit.

In recent months, Mullah Mansoor has worked to eliminate rivals and has opened new battle fronts across the war-torn nation as Afghan security forces -- suffering casualties and desertions -- struggle to beat back a revitalized insurgency.

Recent Taliban successes have included the temporary capture of the strategic city of Kunduz and parts of the opium-rich Helmand province.

Several dissident Taliban leaders, meanwhile, including the brother and a son of the late Mullah Omar, have recently pledged their allegiance to Mullah Mansoor, cementing the latter’s grip on the militant network.

Although U.S.-led coalition forces abandoned their combat mission in Afghanistan last December, they still maintain considerable airpower in the country -- along with 13,000 ground troops -- to support the government’s counter-insurgency efforts.