WASHINGTON, Mar 6: The US has called on the Taliban to give “serious” consideration to an offer for peace talks extended by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani last week, but said any such dialogue should not involve America.
Ghani at an international conference in Kabul last week offered to allow the Taliban to establish itself as a political party and said he would work to remove sanctions on the militant group if it joined the government in peace negotiations.
But the Taliban has continued to reject direct peace talks with the government and has insisted it will only negotiate with the US.
Alice Wells, a US principal deputy assistant secretary of state in charge of South and Central Asian affairs, told reporters Ghani is not demanding “surrender” by the Taliban.
“This is not a surrender that’s being offered to the Taliban, but a dignified process for reaching a political framework. And again, he emphasised that this is negotiations without preconditions, a process that would lead to a cessation of violence, halt the ties with terrorism, and respect for the Afghanistan constitution,” she said.
“But it was clear, that the Government of Afghanistan has listened carefully to the Taliban and was responsive to the Taliban in underscoring that issues like office and passports and delisting – the mechanics of how you actually arrange a dignified negotiation – were very much in their – in the forefront of their thinking and included in this offer that was put forward by President Ghani,” she said.
Ghani’s offer was “quite forward-leaning”, Wells said. “This was quite a courageous offer.”
“We certainly encourage the Taliban to take this offer seriously. It does put the onus on the Taliban to respond,” she said.
Wells said Ghani was clear that amendments to the constitution can be discussed.
The international community is very focused on the rights of the Afghan people continuing to be advanced.
“Over the last year, the Taliban have not succeeded in threatening major urban centers. So already there’s been an erosion in certainly what they had hoped to achieve on the battlefield, and that erosion will continue, again, with the increased assets being brought to bear under the South Asia strategy,” she said. (PTI)
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