Pakistan, Afghanistan continue talks to resolve cross-border tensions

Officials from Pakistan and Afghanistan were still trying to find common ground to settle their dispute over cross-border military and other issues despite three days of talks held in Turkey.

Talks began on Saturday and continued through Monday, but without any final agreement.

Quoting officials, the Dawn newspaper reported that a final agreement still remained elusive.

Sources familiar with the closed-door discussions said that while most of the points had been mutually agreed between the two sides, the mechanism for verifiable action against terrorist groups operating from Afghan territory continued to be the main sticking point.

We kept hoping that we would be able to sign a mutual document with Afghanistan soon, followed by a joint statement, but it still remains out of our reach, the newspaper quoted one source as saying.

The atmosphere early on Monday had been markedly positive. Participants described encouraging progress and serious engagement from both delegations.

As the day wore on and talks stretched into the evening, optimism began to fade. It is a difficult phase, a source said.

By nightfall, it appeared that the process had once again hit a roadblock, accordinf to the newspaper.

The Afghan Taliban delegation continued to resist putting anything in writing, particularly on the issue of providing verifiable guarantees to end support for the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), according to the participants.

The tone at the start of Monday's proceedings contrasted sharply with the pessimism that followed Sunday's session, when Pakistani officials told reporters that Islamabad had presented its final position to the Taliban delegation a statement widely interpreted in local media as signalling the possible collapse of the talks.

In contrast to those reports, members of the Afghan negotiating team had on Sunday night and Monday morning continued to express optimism.

They maintained that the dialogue in Istanbul could still yield results, describing the remaining disagreements as few and resolvable.

The Afghan side has made it clear that tensions benefit no one, one member of the delegation said. We are hopeful that these talks will produce a positive outcome.

Mediators from Turkey and Qatar were said to share this sentiment, stressing the importance of maintaining engagement and preventing the process from unravelling.

Despite the lingering stalemate, diplomatic sources described Monday's session as not without significance.

Even if the talks didn't produce a breakthrough, the fact that both sides stayed engaged for three straight days is important, one mediator said. It shows that neither wants the process to collapse.

By late evening, negotiators in Istanbul were weighing whether to extend discussions into a fourth day, according to the newspaper.

Dozens of soldiers, civilians and terrorists were killed in clashes between earlier this month, creating a war-like situation; however, peace was restored temporarily on October 19 after the two sides held talks -- facilitated by Qatar and Turkey -- in Doha.

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Saturday warned of an all-out war with the Afghan Taliban if the talks failed.