{"id":94951,"date":"2020-08-19T05:49:21","date_gmt":"2020-08-19T05:49:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swn.af\/lib\/soon-afghan-owned-negotiations-should-start\/"},"modified":"2020-08-19T05:49:21","modified_gmt":"2020-08-19T05:49:21","slug":"soon-afghan-owned-negotiations-should-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swn.af\/archive\/soon-afghan-owned-negotiations-should-start\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Soon Afghan-owned negotiations should start\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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KABUL (SW) – The top US peace envoy has called for swiftly commencing the proposed Afghan-owned and Afghan-led negotiations.<\/p>\n

Zalmay Khalilzad, U.S. special representative for Afghanistan reconciliation, said this in a series of tweets in connection with the Independence Day celebrations. “Today marks 101 years since Afghanistan re-claimed its independence. It is a day in which Afghans take pride and one that is rightly remembered and celebrated”, he said.<\/p>\n

Khalilzad added that this year's celebration takes place as efforts to end the 40 year plus war are, despite serious challenges, at a hopeful stage. “Afghans yearn for peace and soon Afghan-owned and Afghan-led negotiations should start, a historic and vital step”, he said.<\/p>\n

The top US peace broker said Afghan leaders from all sides will have to rise to the occasion, put their country first, learn from past mistakes and reach a political agreement.<\/p>\n

“That is the road to ending the war and a comprehensive and permanent ceasefire. The US joins Afghans in celebrating their independence and will stand with them in the their struggle to forge a sustainable peace. We wish Afghanistan independence and peace”, tweeted Khalilzad.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, The President’s office said that despite the near complete release of Taliban prisoners by the government, the insurgents have not released a number of security forces prisoners.<\/p>\n

Sediq Seddiqi, the presidential spokesman, called on the Taliban to release the captives of the security forces.<\/p>\n

This comes as the Taliban claim to have released up to a thousand security forces, under the Doha peace agreement.<\/p>\n

ENDS<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KABUL (SW) \u2013 The top US peace envoy has called for swiftly commencing the proposed Afghan-owned and Afghan-led negotiations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":94952,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[93],"class_list":["post-94951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}