Amir Khan Muttaqi, the Taliban’s foreign minister, is expected to lead a high-level Taliban delegation to Pakistan in early August, according to sources familiar with the plans.
The delegation will include senior Taliban officials, among them Qudratullah Jamal, the Taliban’s deputy minister of industry and commerce, the sources said. The trip is expected to last two to three days.
Talks will focus on political and economic issues as well as follow-up on agreements reached during recent visits by Pakistani officials to Kabul, the sources added.
The planned trip comes shortly after Pakistan’s foreign and interior ministers traveled to Kabul for separate meetings, including a trilateral gathering with counterparts from the Taliban and Uzbekistan.
Pakistan has repeatedly pressed the Taliban to act against militants from Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), who Islamabad says operate from Afghan soil. The Taliban have denied the group’s presence in Afghanistan, though a recent United Nations monitoring report estimated that TTP has about 6,000 fighters in the country.
