ISLAMABAD (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday offered to mediate for a new ceasefire between Pakistan and Afghanistan as border clashes between Afghanistan and Pakistan entered their sixth day. Pakistan’s army chief said lasting peace depends on Kabul cutting ties with militants targeting his country.
The conflict erupted last week with Afghanistan launching attacks on Thursday in retaliation for Pakistani airstrikes the previous weekend. Since then, Pakistan has carried out operations along the border and declared it was in an “open war” with Afghanistan, alarming the international community.
The ongoing clashes ended an earlier ceasefire brokered by Qatar and Turkey in October, when the two neighbors had again come close to a war. The truce, signed in Qatar at the time, was followed by six days of talks in Istanbul, which resulted in an agreement to extend the truce and hold a third round of negotiations in November.
Those talks, held on Nov. 6 and Nov. 7 failed to produce any breakthrough and the process stalled.
According to a statement from the Turkish presidential office, Erdogan, in a telephone call with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif “condemned the terrorist attacks in Pakistan” and said Turkey would seek to “contribute to the reestablishment of the ceasefire between Pakistan and Afghanistan.”
Sharif’s office did not directly confirm Erdogan’s offer but said the two leaders discussed tensions along the 2,611-kilometer (1,622-mile) -long Afghan-Pakistan border. It said the two “exchanged views on recent developments” and would remain in closer “contact in our shared pursuit of peace and stability in the region.”
On Wednesday, Pakistan’s army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir said peace between Pakistan and Afghanistan depends on the Afghan Taliban severing ties with militants targeting Pakistan, warning …