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KABUL: Abdullah Abdullah chairman of the high council for national reconciliation met the US special representative for Afghan reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad on Tuesday in Kabul, where he emphasized that increasing violence and targeted terrors were unacceptable for the people of Afghanistan.
Abdullah also urged an urgent cease fire, while thanking the United States for its supports and efforts for the peace process.
The head of reconciliation council expressed happiness with the progress in peace talks with Taliban, saying that the Afghan negotiating team left for Doha to start the second round of talks having strong support from the government.
He said that the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan was committed to reach lasting peace and used any opportunity in this regard.
Khalilzad called the first round of the negotiations as “successful”, assuring his country’s fully support to the Afghan peace efforts.
Abdullah’s office said in a statement that Khalilzad also called on the two sides of negotiations not to miss the existing opportunity for gaining a durable peace and stop decades of war.
Khalilzad said that continuing of violence was not justifiable and emphasized on significant decrease in violence.
Armed attacks in different provinces as well as targeted murders have a surprising increase since the intra-Afghan talks began in September aimed at ending war. The attacks and targeted murders are carried out by Taliban to establish a rift between the government and people, according to senior government officials.
Khalilzad started a regional tour during which he visited Pakistan before landing in Kabul.
The Afghan and Taliban negotiators were planned to resume talks on peace in Qatar after they spent three weeks in break.
