国际英语新闻:Pakistan to attend Moscow meeting on Afghanistan: foreign ministry

ISLAMABAD, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan will attend regional countries consultations in Russia on Afghanistan on Friday which is part of diplomatic efforts to press for political solution to the Afghan conflict, the foreign ministry said on Thursday.

Senior diplomats from India, Iran, China, the United States and some other regional countries will attend the Moscow format consultations, according to the Russian foreign ministry.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has also decided to send a delegation of the government-sponsored High Peace Council to the meeting.

Pakistan foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Faisal said additional secretary for Afghanistan and West Asia will lead the Pakistani delegation to the meeting.

"Role of Afghanistan's neighbors would be very important in such a process. In our view, Afghan peace and reconciliation process supported by Afghanistan's neighbors and important regional countries would have more chances of success," Faisal said during his weekly press briefing in Islamabad.

Hoping the meeting would contribute to developing regional consensus in support of Afghan peace process, Faisal said Pakistan has always maintained that the most viable solution to the conflict in Afghanistan is the Afghan-led, Afghan-owned peace process.

The Moscow format consultations were earlier scheduled for Sept. 4, but were postponed after the Afghan government refused to attend on the plea that all meetings on Afghanistan should be Afghan-led. The United States had also announced to stay away from the September meeting.

Afghan Taliban have also announced that their political envoys from the Qatar office will attend the consultations in a statement released to the media.

Russia launched the Moscow format consultations in 2017 as part of its diplomatic efforts to press for political solution to the Afghan problem.