The Afghan Taliban are squarely to be blamed for the failure of peace talks in Istanbul. Pakistan had demanded the obvious: written guarantees from Kabul that it will act against the terror outfits, especially the TTP, operating from Afghanistan and exterminate them. This demand was in accordance with the 2020 Doha Accord that the Taliban had signed, pledging before the global community that the Afghan soil will not be used to launch terrorist attacks in the neighbourhood. That promise is yet to be fulfilled, and the failure of Taliban 2.0 to expel the terror remnants from Afghanistan is a blot on their face.

Istanbul talks, brokered by Qatar and Turkiye, were an opportunity in disaster to make headway, so that the volatility in Southwest Asia could be addressed. All that was desired was

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