Washington to host trilateral Afghan Pak US meeting next week

Possibly for the first time since the fall of Taliban, the top leadership of Afghanistan, Pakistan and the US would be seated together in a room to develop a common strategy for their war against Al Qaeda on the Pak-Afghan border.

Said to be a result of the first trip to the region by Richard Holbrooke, the special US envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan, the US Government has decided to consider the viewpoints of the both Kabul and Islamabad in framing a new Afghan strategy.

This is unlike in the past wherein the two Capitals were expected to follow the decisions taken at the White House, Pentagon and the State Department.

The US-Afghan-Pak tri-lateral meeting is expected to be held on Wednesday or Thursday as details of the schedule were still being finalised.

Both Afghanistan and Pakistan delegations would be led by their respective foreign ministers, Rangin Dadfar Spanta and Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who arrive in Washington on Sunday.

Other members of the Afghan delegation include the minister of Defence Abdul Rahman Wardak and the Interior minister Mohd Hanif Atmar. The National security advisor and the head of intelligence too would be part of the delegation.