Ghani, Imran discuss Afghan peace process

Monitoring Desk

KABUL: President Ashraf Ghani and Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan discussed the Afghan peace process during a telephonic conversation on Thursday (January 17). According to a presidential office press release available with Afghan Islamic Press (AIP), both the leaders discussed the peace process led and owned by the people of Afghanistan.

Afghan President Muhammad Ashraf Ghani invited Imran Khan to pay visit to Kabul. Imran Khan accepted the invitation and invited President Ghani to visit Islamabad at a suitable time.

Efforts have been expedited for restoration of peace to Afghanistan. The second round of peace talks between the United States of America and Taliban was suspended due to some differences. The Taliban accused the U.S. of insincerity in the peace talks and warned to stop the process of negotiations if the U.S. tried to assert pressure and include more issues in the agenda of the meeting.

According to Taliban, the U.S. is trying to include new issues in the agenda of peace talks. The Taliban are of the view that these issues had not been included in the agenda at the initial stages. The Taliban said the U.S. had agreed that the withdrawal of foreign forces and the existing threats to Afghanistan from America and other countries of the world would be discussed in the second round of talks. Now the U.S. is trying to put new issues in the agenda. Due to this reason, Taliban say the peace talks have been suspended.

U.S. special envoy for Afghan peace Dr. Zalmai Khalilzad paid fourth visit to countries of the region yesterday. He said they were ready to make peace with Taliban if they want peace, and that they were ready for war if Taliban wanted war. On the other side, Taliban said the Afghan conflict was directly linked with foreign occupation. The Afghan issue could not be resolved till the end of occupation, Taliban said in their weekly review. In reaction to the remarks of Khalilzad, Taliban said the statement showed that the recent process of negotiations was being utilized to expand the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan.

The unserious remarks of Khalilzad confirmed the stance of officials of the presidential palace that they demand the U.S. to stay in Afghanistan forever, give them dollars and expand the bloody war for 18 more years.

The Taliban said the Islamic Emirate had explained the process of negotiations before the nation in a recent press statement.

About the reason of the stalled process, the Taliban explained that the U.S. was using tactics. The U.S. was backtracking on the initial agenda. Due to this reason, the process of talks was suspended.

Taliban said that during the initial meetings Khalilzad had conveyed the U.S. message to Taliban representatives that the U.S. had concerns that Afghanistan could pose threat to the security of world, particularly U.S. The U.S. wanted to avoid the recurrence of 9/11 incident. The international forces came to Afghanistan for this purpose. This was a basic point for the U.S. which was included in the agenda. In response, the Taliban said that their purpose was completely withdrawal of foreign forces. This point was considered as the basic point of Taliban and was included in the agenda of talks.

Both the sides agreed on these points and agreed that these issues would be discussed in the next meetings so that both the sides could reach at a positive conclusion.

“During the meeting in Abu Dhabi, Khalilzad told the representatives of Islamic Emirate to hold direct talks with the Afghan government if they are serious to address the conflict of Afghanistan. I have told Saudi to hold a gathering in the next few days. You will hold talks with the Afghan government,” Taliban said in the weekly statement.

To the remarks of Khalilzad, Taliban replied: “These issues were not part of our joint agenda. If you are asking us to hold talks with Afghans, then holding talks with Afghans is our domestic issue. We are in continuous contact with Afghans. We hold formal meetings with organizations, political figures, tribal figures and other Afghans three times a month. We have complete plan for the future. We have no issues.”

The Taliban once again denied holding talks with the Afghan government, saying they would hold negotiations with Afghan officials once they reached at conclusion with the U.S. representatives.

The Taliban warned that the U.S. would be responsible if the ongoing peace process was eliminated. (AIP)