By Asif Shahzad
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) -Afghanistan and Pakistan officials will meet in Istanbul on Monday for a third day of talks after failing to clinch a lasting peace, three sources familiar with the matter said, as U.S. President Donald Trump repeated an offer to mediate.
The South Asian neighbours agreed to a ceasefire in Doha on October 19 after days of border clashes that killed dozens in the worst such violence since the Taliban seized power in Kabul in 2021.
The current second round of peace talks mediated by Turkey aims to hammer out a long-term truce, but both sides have offered markedly different interpretations of the talks.
Two Pakistan security sources accused the Afghan Taliban of not cooperating with the dialogue process.
“The Pakistani delegation has made it clear that no compromise is possible on our core demands on cross border terrorism,” one of the sources said.
A Taliban delegate to the talks dismissed as “false” the suggestion that the Islamist group was holding up the talks, adding that the discussions were still in progress.
“Overall the meeting is going well and we discussed multiple issues in a friendly environment,” the person said.
The sources spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to speak publicly on the issue.
In comments on Monday to state broadcaster RTA, Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said, “The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan supports dialogue and believes that problems and issues can be resolved through dialogue.”
A spokesperson for Pakistan’s foreign ministry declined to comment on the current status of talks.
On Saturday, Pakistan’s defence minister said he believed Afghanistan wanted peace but that failure to reach an agreement in the Istanbul talks would mean “open war”.
Late on Sunday, Trump repeated an offer to help end the conflict.
“I’ll get that solved very quickly, I know them both,” he said in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur on the sidelines of a regional summit.
“I have no doubt we are going to get that done quickly.”
The clashes began after Pakistan’s air strike this month on Kabul, the Afghan capital, targeting the head of the Pakistani Taliban, a militant group separate from the Taliban that rules Afghanistan.
The Taliban responded with attacks on Pakistani military posts along the length of the 2,600 km (1,600 miles) border.
Pakistan accuses the Taliban of allowing the Pakistani Taliban to operate with impunity inside Afghanistan, from where it launches attacks on Pakistani security forces. Kabul denies this.
Clashes between Pakistan and the Pakistani Taliban over the weekend killed five Pakistani soldiers and 25 militants near the border with Afghanistan, the military said on Sunday.
(Reporting by Asif Shahzad in Islamabad, Mushtaq Ali in Peshawar and Sayed Hassib in Kabul; Writing by Alasdair Pal; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
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