Given the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan, the Taliban’s refusal to come to the table and President Ashraf Ghani’s increasing criticism of Pakistan, the effectiveness and longevity of the Quadrilateral Co-ordination Group (QCG) was already under scrutiny. Therefore, it has come as no surprise that the fifth meeting of the QCG which was held in Islamabad on May 18th 2016, ended with no substantial breakthrough. The absence of the Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Hekmat Khalil Karzai from the meeting further solidified opinion that Kabul no longer views the QCG as an effective initiative to bring about peace in the war torn land of Afghanistan and has started distancing itself from the group’s proceedings. The best that can be said about the QCG is that the peace option has been kept open.
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