KABUL: Former Afghan president Hamid Karzai and head of the High Council for National Reconciliation Abdullah Abdullah will hold talks with Taliban leadership in Doha.
Karzai and Abdullah, also accompanied by Hizb-e-Islami’s Gulbuddin Hekmatyar are expected to discuss the formation of the new government and the political setup in Afghanistan.
Earlier, Hekmatyar talking to a news channel said, he was heading to Doha to meet with the Taliban delegation, accompanied by Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah.
A Taliban delegation led by a senior leader of the Haqqani Network group, Anas Haqqani, met the former Afghan, a Taliban official corroborated on Wednesday, amid efforts by the group to set up a government.
The Haqqani Network is an important faction of the Taliban, who captured the capital, Kabul on Sunday.
Karzai on Sunday announced that a ‘coordination council’ was formed “in order to prevent chaos, reduce sufferings of the people and oversee a peaceful transition of power” after the Taliban seized control of the war-torn country.
The Afghan Taliban said on Tuesday they wanted peaceful relations with other countries and would respect the rights of women within the framework of Islamic law, as they held their first official news briefing since their shock seizure of Kabul.
“We don’t want any internal or external enemies,” the movement’s main spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said. Women would be allowed to work and study and “will be very active in society but within the framework of Islam”, he added.
“If the question is based on ideology, and beliefs, there is no difference… but if we calculate it based on experience, maturity, and insight, no doubt there are many differences,” Mujahid told reporters.
“All those in the opposite side are pardoned from A to Z,” he said. “We will not seek revenge.”
Mujahid said a government would soon be formed but offered few details, only saying the Taliban would “connect with all sides”.
with additional input from Reuters
