KABUL (SW) – The proposed peace conference in Turkey was likely to be postponed on the request of the Taliban, said sources.
Syed Akbar Agha, a former Taliban-era official, said the Taliban leaders were not given time to speak at a meeting on Afghan peace in Moscow at the request of the Americans, and that the same could be done at a meeting in Turkey.
He said another reason for postponing the conference in Istanbul was the debate surrounding the inclusive government, which the Taliban are opposing.
Meanwhile, another former Taliban official, Maulvi Qalamuddin, believed that given the situation, the Turkish peace talks may be postponed. He blamed technical problems on all sides, a lack of consensus on both sides and a lack of clarity on the withdrawal of US troops for the delay.
Maulvi Qalamuddin added that if the United Nations and the United States put pressure on both sides and the existing problems are resolved, then it is possible to hold the Istanbul conference on Afghan peace in time.
However, Najia Anwari, a spokeswoman for the State Ministry of Peace, did not comment on the postponement of the conference at the suggestion of the Taliban, but said the Afghan government was fully prepared to attend the meeting in Istanbul.
Meanwhile, political analyst Subhanullah Misbah called the likely postponement of the conference as useless and said that the Taliban’s stance on peace was not fair from the beginning as they wanted to put pressure on the government and take concessions. He added that Afghans want peace, not the postponement of the Istanbul conference.
We also tried to get the Taliban’s point of view, but a spokesman for the group’s political office in Qatar did not respond to repeated calls from Salam Watandar.
ENDS
