MOSCOW: The Afghan government and the Taliban agreed on Friday to try to accelerate peace talks, at a meeting in Moscow that followed an international conference there on the peace process, a senior Afghan official was quoted as saying.
The United States, Russia, China and Pakistan called on Afghanistan’s warring sides to reach an immediate ceasefire at the conference, held in Russia just six weeks before a deadline agreed last year to withdraw US troops.
“We expressed our readiness to accelerate the (peace) process,” Abdullah Abdullah, chairman of Afghanistan’s High Council for National Reconciliation, told Russia’s RIA news agency. “They (the Taliban) did as well.”
Abdullah said the sides had not discussed any specific issues when they met in Moscow on Friday.
Moscow hosted the international conference on Afghanistan on Thursday, at which Russia, the United States, China and Pakistan released a joint statement calling on the Afghan sides to reach a peace deal and curb violence, and on the Taliban not to launch any offensives in the spring and summer.
The conference aimed to reinvigorate negotiations which have been taking place between the Afghan government and the Taliban in Qatar’s capital Doha, largely stalled over government accusations that the Taliban have failed to halt violence.
The United States sent a senior representative to Moscow for the talks on Afghanistan. Washington agreed last year with the Taliban to withdraw its troops by May 1 after nearly two decades, and is looking for support among regional powers for its plans for the peace process.
On one side the Taliban is talking in favor of continuing the peace process and on the other side is behaving aggressively. Right now Taliban leaders have threatened that they will continue the attacks in case the US troops do not leave Afghanistan. In fact, this behavior of Taliban is in accordance with the strategic interests of Pakistan and it is clear that they are getting instructions from Pakistani handlers. Pakistan does not want peace in Afghanistan because it hurts Pakistan’s strategic interests. If peace prevails in Afghanistan, Pakistan’s support from the international community will cease and it will prove dangerous for the declining economy of Pakistan. Therefore, Pakistan, by instigating the Taliban, is becoming an impediment to the peace process in Afghanistan.