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KABUL: As the fifth round of negotiations between Taliban and the US representatives are going on in the Qatari capital, people and government hope this could lead the process to intra-Afghan talks.
Omid Maisam, spokesman for the chief executive says they expect flexibility among Taliban negotiators to join talks with the government.
“We hope such meetings could help negotiations between government and Taliban. We hope Taliban are more flexible and say yes to talks with the government,” Maisam said on Tuesday.
Taliban’s second in command Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar who has been recently freed from a Pakistani jail and was appointed as the group’s head of political office in Doha, joined the fifth round of talks with the US envoy for Afghan peace, Zalmay Khalilzad.
Earlier, both Taliban and American side said of important progresses in the negotiations. The current round of talks is called more important because of the Baradar presence. The negotiators are expected to reach some agreements.
Former Taliban’s ambassador to the United Nations Abdul Hakim Mujahid who is now a member of the government-funded High Peace Council, is sure that the group would reach agreements with the US and would nod to requests for holding talks with government.
“This is not Taliban’s policy not to talk to the government for ever. They plan to first negotiate with the US over matters related to them, and then they would sit with the government to talk over issues related to the Afghanistan and Afghans,” said Mujahid.
The optimisms come a day after chief executive Abdullah Abdullah accused Taliban of hampering the peace efforts.
Taliban have so far rejected talk requests with the government.
