India, Iran and Russian Federation should be included in the talks with the Taliban, says former Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, who said that the current talks among the Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG) were Afghanistan’s “only hope for peace” despite the fact that the talks were being held in Pakistan.
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“We reject all such rumors and unequivocally state that the esteemed leader of the Islamic Emirate has not authorized anyone to participate in this meeting and neither has the leadership Council of Islamic Emirate made a decision to partake in it” , it added.
The intensification of operations by the Afghan forces, deployment of the U.S. troops to the battlefield and their participation in air strikes and continuing night raids are a few factors for not carrying forward the negotiation.
Describing al-Qaida, IS and other extremist groups as the reason for the ongoing militancy in the country, Ghani said Taliban should prove they are Afghans and have no relations with terrorist groups. The Afghan leader urged insurgent groups to come to the negotiating table during his speech to a post-winter break opening session of parliament on Sunday.
At a February 6 QCG meeting in Islamabad, participants agreed on a roadmap for the resumption of talks, which were suspended after the Taliban a year ago announced the death of group head Mullah Mohamed Omar. “We are blamed to be pursuing a duplicitous policy”. But the Taliban denied they would be participating in any upcoming talks in Islamabad.
The Taliban also repeated calls for its leaders to be removed from United Nations blacklists and for its prisoners to be freed from USA detention in Guantanamo Bay, in Cuba, and in an Afghanistan-run detention facility near Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan. Officials have said most militants calling themselves IS are disaffected Taliban fighters.
“President Barack Obama told President Ghani that he is impressed by Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) performance and courage to fight terrorism”, the ARG Palace said.
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India has stayed disengaged from the process, saying that it would support any initiative that is “Afghan-owned and Afghan-led” . From soviet invasion in 1978, civil war in 1990s and then United States invasion after 9/11 attacks, Afghan people have suffered enough. The government in Kabul has also escalated operations against the group, it said. “Peace is the only way forward”.
