Summary Afghan President has said without participation of Pakistan no peace process can be fruitful.
KABUL (Online): end but alleged that unfortunately, we do not have concrete steps taken from Pakistan.
According to media reports, in a joint press conference with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry replying different questions president karzai said that we know the Taliban want to talk to the Afghan Peace Council and the Afghan Government.
They’re talking to us. Already, there are individual contacts.
When we say “peace process,” this is not to mean talking to the Taliban alone, unofficially, or as Afghan to Afghan, but a process whereby there is a recognized, official, publicly-announced process between the Taliban and the Afghan Peace Council on the one hand, and between the Afghan Government and the Pakistani Government on the other hand, he elaborated.
He said that without the participation of Pakistan, any peace process will not see a fruitful end.
The other element in here is the United States and Afghanistan engaged with Pakistan and engaged with the Taliban.
So the office in Qatar is something that we have agreed to. We want to encourage those who come to Qatar on behalf of the Taliban to begin to talk with the Afghan Peace Council as soon as possible.
Now, the Taliban, as Afghans, ma’am, have all the right to engage with all other Afghans as fellow citizens, that they can do today, that they can do tomorrow.
Like they talk to me as a fellow citizen of Afghanistan, they also have the right to engage with all other Afghans in the same manner.
He maintained that on the peace process, efforts are being made, and on the issues that we require Pakistan’s cooperation. Unfortunately, we do not have concrete steps taken.
It was agreed that we would hold a joint, a religious clerics’ council between the two countries. And in order for that to happen, Afghanistan has sent its delegation, led by our religious clerics’ council head and – where they discussed the details on the council. And Pakistan religious councils said that Taliban to be invited into this conference, and we welcome that.
He claimed that but then later on, we heard the, again, the religious council’s head of Pakistan calling suicide bombings in Afghanistan as legitimate and lawful.
So this, I mean, the cooperation can’t go this way. Peace is an important desire for Afghanistan as well as for Pakistan.
We’re not only concerned with Afghanistan, but we are equally concerned of Pakistan and worried about Pakistan, about the casualties, about the people that get targeted and killed and injured in Pakistan.
We consider them as our brothers and sisters. So again, this is a call for the Taliban to grasp this opportunity and to use it to their best, to stop killing and violence in Afghanistan.
And again, we are seeking the best brotherhood with Pakistan and the best relationship with Pakistan, and their cooperation would certainly benefit all of us.
He said that we support the release of the prisoners, as we have also supported the release from Guantanamo of Taliban prisoners, and we have declared this to both the US and to the United Nations. We support that.
