Afghanistan Times
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KABUL: Political figures such as Abdullah Abdullah, the chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation and Hamid Karzai, former president, have urged for an immediate reduction in violence and progress in the peace efforts.
The issues were discussed in a meeting between Karzai and Abdullah on Monday.
The concerns are expressed while the Afghan and Taliban negotiators are in Qatar to resume peace talks.
Nader Naderi, a member of the Afghan negotiating team said that the two sides held some sessions to discuss agenda for the main negotiation.
Separately, US diplomat Zalmay Khalilzad who is also in Qatar, met Taliban’s second and command Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar who heads the group’s political office based in Qatar.
Mohammad Naeem, the militants’ political spokesman said that the meeting discussed the US-Taliban peace deal signed last year.
Under the deal the US is committed to withdraw all its soldiers from Afghanistan by May, 2021, and Taliban in return vowed to cut ties with international terrorist groups like al-Qaeda and Daesh and not to let Afghan soil be used as a platform for terrorists to threaten the US interests and its European allies.
Afghan and Taliban negotiating teams have met four times since the second round of the talks began last week, but didn’t manage to unify their viewpoints on agenda.
Hajji Din Mohammad, a member of the high council for national reconciliation said that no delay in the talks was acceptable for Kabul.
“The people of Afghanistan are as thirsty for peace as do not want a single day be wasted,” he said.
The intra-Afghan talks are going on amid increased worsening situation. Targeted killings are taking the lives of people every day. Clashes between government forces and Taliban fighters are going on in 22 of 34 provinces.
This comes while the United States announced it decreased its soldier level to 2,500 in Afghanistan.
