MONITORING (SW) – NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg has said the Alliance is closer to a peace agreement now in Afghanistan than ever before.
Responding to a question in this connection at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, he said there is a NATO mission in Afghanistan with around 16,000 troops, and non-US Allies and partners have been in Afghanistan for many years – for almost close to 20 years. “But, we are still not there that we can announce the agreement. I hope we can do that in the near future but no one can say anything with certainty before everything is in place”, he said.
“And we went in together. We will make decisions on our future presence together and when the time is right we will leave together”, he said.
He voiced strong support and welcomed the talks which are now taking place between the United States and Taliban.
“We strongly support the work to establish inter-Afghan dialogue because the Afghan government has to be part of a peace process. And we have to do whatever we can to preserve the gains we have made in Afghanistan – to avoid Afghanistan becoming a safe haven once again for international terrorists and to maintain the enormous social and economic progress which has been made in Afghanistan not least when it comes to the rights of women. So there are many challenges ahead but I welcome the fact that we are making progress in the dialogue with Taliban”, he said.
This comes as US Special Representative for Afghanistan’s Reconciliation, Zalmay Khalilzad, said on Saturday that the United States is ready for “a good agreement” with the Taliban. “Just got to #Doha to resume talks with the Taliban. We are pursuing a #peace agreement not a withdrawal agreement; a peace agreement that enables withdrawal. Our presence in #Afghanistan is conditions-based, and any withdrawal will be conditions-based”, he tweeted.
Reports suggest an intra-Afghan dialogue would follow this agreement between the U.S. and Taliban.
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