KABUL (SW) – Frist Vice President Amrullah Saleh has asserted that there would be no compromise on the Constitution and the people’s right in the country.
He was speaking at a ceremony held to mark the seven death anniversary of Marshal Mohammad Qasim Fahim at the Loya Jirga. Referring to US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s latest letter to President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, the VP warned against lack of mutual respect in the bilateral relationship.
Amrullah Saleh said Afghanistan valued its relationship with the US, but under no circumstances should anyone deprive the Afghan people of the right to vote. “We are not worried about this letter, nor has our position changed,” the first vice president said.
He added that the West and the United States have the right to decide on their forces in Afghanistan, but it is also the legitimate right of Afghans not to compromise the fate of 35 million citizens for the sake of “calendar of others.”
Saleh said in regard to a proposed meeting of politicians in Turkey that a gathering of some 20 odd people cannot decide the fate of the nation instead the people want a dignified peace. He warned that if that happened, he, like Imam Hussein, will stand against the Taliban and their supporters.
“If the Taliban reach an agreement with us on the principle of elections, we can talk about the date,” Saleh said, adding any deal among few people undermining the system of governance and gains of the past years would not be accepted.
Speaking on the occasion, Abdullah Abdullah, chairman of the High Council of National Reconciliation said that two days before Zalmay Khalilzad, the US State Department’s special envoy for Afghanistan, arrived in Kabul, the US embassy in Kabul had sent the letter to him and President Ghani.
According to Abdullah, although he does not want to defend the letter, but important issues are included in the letter. “No one can impose anything on the people of Afghanistan. Division, discriminations and incompetence have imposed everything on us.”
The chairman of the HCNR stressed that the achievement of the right to vote, which he said was the greatest achievement, should not be traded.
This came as some media outlets have obtained a copy of a letter by US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, which suggested Washington was aiming to hold a gathering of foreign ministers and special envoys of Russia, China, Pakistan, Iran and India to discuss a single approach to the Afghan peace process.
In the letter to President Ghani, the US Secretary of State warned about the situation in Afghanistan and stressed the urgent need for a “political solution”. In this letter, Anthony Blinken also asked President Ghani to join the diplomatic efforts to achieve peace. Blinken warned that a lack of consensus among Afghan leaders would have had catastrophic consequences.
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