“Taliban ‘must’ stop their attacks and help build peace”

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KABUL (SW) – The French Embassy in Kabul stressed on Thursday the Taliban ‘must’ stop their attacks and help build peace.

This comes amid mounting violence across the country claiming multiple lives. In a statement, the French Embassy said the Taliban continue displaying an unacceptable level of violence. “ … the people suffer every day from the war: yesterday in Takhar dozens of ANDSF were killed, in Helmand the Taliban’s offensive displaced 40 000 civilians. The Taliban must stop their attacks and help build peace”, it stressed.

As per the US – Taliban peace deal inked by the two in February, the insurgents are not supposed to attack major cities and provincial capitals. Both sides have exchanged allegations of violating this accord causing deaths among the Afghan civilians and security forces.

The top US peace envoy for Afghanistan on Monday warned that the continued high levels of violence can threaten the peace process and the agreement and the core understanding that there is no military solution.

In a series of tweets, Zalmay Khalilzad, US special representative for Afghanistan reconciliation, labelled the Taliban allegations regarding surging American air raids as ‘unfounded’ charges of violations and inflammatory rhetoric.

“Instead, we should pursue strict adherence to all articles of the U.S.-Taliban Agreement and U.S.-Afghanistan Joint Declaration and not neglect the commitment to gradually reduce violence”, he stressed.

The US Envoy further said continued high levels of violence can threaten the peace process and the agreement and the core understanding that there is no military solution. He added violence remains distressingly high in spite of the recent reaffirmation of the need for substantial reduction.

ENDS

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