KABUL (SW) – Abdul Latif Pedram, chairman of the National Congress Party, claimed here on Sunday that Abdullah Abdullah, chairman High Council for National Reconciliation, did not took part in important discussions during the recent Moscow conference.
He told a news conference in Kabul that although speculation was rife that Abdullah was the head of the Afghan delegation at the Moscow conference, but that was not the case.
The Congress party chief said Abdullah Abdullah, chairman of the HCNR was not present in decisive discussions in the Russian capital. “Mr. Abdullah did not attend the important meetings and decision making on peace in Afghanistan held in Moscow, and these meetings were held behind closed doors”, he said.
Pidram said Hamid Karzai, former president, representatives of the Taliban and Pakistan, and Zamir Kabulov, Russia’s representative in Afghanistan were present in these talks. He added that Mohammad Masoom Stanekzai, instead of Abdullah Abdullah, was chairing the session at the Moscow meeting and that decision making was “in private”.
We wished to have the views of the High Council of National Reconciliation in this regard, but the council’s spokesman, Fereydoun Khwazon declined to comment.
Last month, Russia, the US, China, and Pakistan — the expanded troika on the Afghan settlement — called on the Taliban to abandon plans on the Spring offensive following the Moscow meeting on Afghanistan. In a joint statement, approved by the meeting participants, the expanded “troika” urged all parties “to reduce the level of violence”, and on the Taliban – not to pursue a Spring offensive.
Pressing the warring factions in Afghanistan to reach a negotiated political settlement, the Moscow conference endorsed the UN Security Council resolution 2513 (2020) that opposed restoration of the ‘Islamic Emirate’ (Taliban regime) in Afghanistan.
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