KABUL (AFP) – The Afghan president is walking a knife edge in efforts to bring peace to his war-ravaged country, balancing the interests of his neighbours and the Western countries supporting him, analysts said.

Recent reported arrests in Pakistan of Taliban players, including second-in-command Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar – the only detention Pakistan has officially confirmed – have frozen Hamid Karzai’s peace plan, they said.

Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) is believed to have been involved, in cooperation with the United States, and many in Afghanistan deeply distrustful of the agency accuse it of aiming to destabiliZe any peace process.