Pakistan’s top diplomat Sartaj Aziz said on Wednesday that Pakistan has some influence on Afghan Taliban but it has no control over them.

Mr Aziz, advisor to Prime Minister on foreign affairs, said the Afghan governme-nt has not yet approached Pakistan regarding contacts with Taliban.

Talking to a television channel, Mr Aziz said the international community has concerns about the Afghan issue and no world power wants war in Afghanistan.

“It was up to the Afghan government to resume talks with Taliban and our job is just of a facilitator,” he added. Mr Aziz said Pakistan’s stance was very much clear that its soil would not be used against any country.

He said that both the US and Pakistan fully supported the Afghan reconciliation process and the two countries want resumption of talks between the Afghan government and Taliban.

The remarks by Mr Aziz came a week after a meeting between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and United States President Barack Obama in Washington.

Mr Obama thanked Mr Sharif for Pakistan’s role in negotiations and stressed that the US believed an “Afghan-led” reconciliation process was the only way to bring lasting stability and peace to Afghanistan and the region.

In July this year, Pakistan hosted a landmark set of preliminary meetings between Afghan officials and the Taliban but a second round of scheduled talks was postponed after the Afghan government revealed that Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar had died in a hospital two years ago.