Afghanistan Times
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AT News Report
KABUL: A large number of key figures from national characters to jihadi leaders, civil society representatives and people’s representatives said that peace should be given priority to the presidential elections scheduled to be held at the weekend.
The figures emphasized that the people of Afghanistan want and will peace and end to the tiring war before other things.
The meeting held on Monday at the office of former president Hamid Karzai, said these figures had been working hard for peace including attending the two rounds of intra-Afghan dialogue held in Russian capital city of Moscow and talked face to face to Taliban negotiators.
The meeting said the peace process should be transparent, national and Afghan-led. The process should be Afghan-owned and Afghans should be given chance to take decision.
The participants urged that peace would not be achieved unless the government holds direct talks with the Taliban.
They asked the Taliban to not lose the chance of holding negotiations with the people and government.
They called for the resumption of the US-Taliban
negotiations canceled by the US president.
the participants also called for an active role of the neighboring countries as
guarantors in the peace process of Afghanistan.
The participants called for a national, regional and international consensus
for the Afghan peace, but said that peace should not cause retreats in
government system and
They said that the upcoming election is not led by the people and would lead
the country to a deep crisis and would not help the peace efforts.
The participants added that the government does not control
on important parts of the country, so thousands of people cannot take part in
the polls. They added that people of Afghanistan are concerned of already
architected election that would help a certain candidate to win the polls
through fraud and corruption.
