Ghani, Abdullah ‘near deal’ to end deadlock over power

KABUL (AT News): Abdullah Abdullah, one of President Ashraf Ghani’s rivals in the last year’s election who rejected announcement of the independent election commission that declared Ghani the winner, says now to finalizing a scheme that is expected to put an end to the political tensions with the president.

Abdullah lost the election, but disobeyed the results and formed a parallel government. He then agreed with some mediations. President Ghani also accepted to have Abdullah in his government as the head of peace efforts body.

“Once our plan is final and consultations end, we will share the plan with the mediators to share with the opposite side. The situation now requires both sides to be flexible so that we can solve the problems and we hope our plan lead us to a political understanding,” Abdullah’s spokesman Feraidoon Khozon said Friday.

He didn’t provide details of the plan, but another aide of Abdullah had earlier said that their plan would offer an equal power sharing with Abdullah being the chief executive.

The European Union on Thursday called on Afghan political leaders to agree on a political deal.

“The European Union, its mission heads and Norwegian Ambassador to Kabul call on all involved parties in the political talks to accept a political agreement,” it said in a statement.

The statement urged that it was a time for unity in Afghanistan.

Ghani’s aides say that a lawful partnership in the power was a principle for him.

“We trust in a government with wider political bases, a government in which all the people of Afghanistan can see themselves. So, the lawful partnership in the government structure is a principle for us,” Latif Mahmoud, a spokesman for Ghani said Friday.