KABUL (SW) – Deputy Head of the High Peace Council has said ground has been paved for direct talks for peace between the Afghan government and Taliban in Germany.
Abdul Khaber Ochqon told Salam Watandar that President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani and the U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation, Zalmay Khalilzad are heading efforts to formulate peace delegation for talks.
He added that soon the final date for the talks would be announced. This is going to be the maiden face-to-face talks between the government and the Taliban that would have a specific agenda.
In the meanwhile, Suhail Shaheen, spokesman for the Taliban’s Qatar office, told SW that the group would first resolve all issues, including withdrawal of the foreign troops with the U.S. and later talk to the Afghan government and other parties to the conflict.
He clarified there is no conference planned for them and the agreement with the U.S. should be inked publicly in the presence of media.
This comes as the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford, who is in an unannounced visit in the country, stressed the Afghan government and coalition forces are working to support the negotiations process and that have not changed the military mission in the country.
“Part of the problem is that the Taliban are not a monolithic entity, but rather a group of groups with different degrees of ideological purity and different goals. Some Taliban groups may work with the government. Others take a more hardline approach. Some want all foreign troops out immediately. Others will take a conditions-based approach,” he said, according to a statement from the Pentagon.
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