Afghanistan Times
Related Articles
The Russian government has recently said that it would not participate in the Afghan peace process. Moscow called the quadrilateral coordination group’s talks, a “US-led process”.
Four countries (Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the United States) are trying to make a roadmap to persuade Taliban and other armed opposition groups to a face-to-face talk with the government.
“We are not going to participate in these useless attempts,” an official of the Russian foreign ministry has declared.The official, who has not been named, has also announced that Russia is ready to set up a negotiation process independently.
The announcement comes after former Afghan president Hamid Karzai’s statement regarding the inclusion of Russia, Iran and India in the negotiations.As an experienced politician who has led the country for more than a decade, Karzai knows better the importance of the regional countries in the peace process of his homeland.
During his tenure, Karzai kept friendly relationships with the regional countries including the Russian Federation. He understands that Moscow’s role in the peace process is very useful.
There are some points in the Russian diplomat’s statement that need corrections. The peace effort is entirely owned and led by Afghanistan, not the United States. This has been clearly announced several times by the participant countries. The US along the two other countries just helps Afghans in finding a solution.
The statement has also said that Russia wants to set up an independent negotiation process. As peace is the basic need of Afghans, they welcome any effort by the friendly countries. But we can reach a comprehensive agreement when we sit together and express our views. The statement could discourage other countries of the process and they would also want the ‘independent’ negotiations.
Moscow believes the talks would be useless, saying it does not see any practical sense in it. Nobody has additional time to participate in a useless process. We should not be pessimistic to the peace efforts. If we look at the process optimistically, we will get some fruitful results, and pessimism will have a contrary consequence.
We expect the world community, regional countries and our neighbors to help us in putting an end to the longtime war and devastation and help us in bringing a long-lasting peace in our country.
Afghan people are fully tired of war and are thirsty for peace. War in Afghanistan has put negative impacts on the situation of the region as even Islamabad which is blamed for disturbing the peace efforts, now says that its stability depends to a stable Afghanistan.
So, Russia being a good friend of Afghanistan is requested to help the Afghan people to breathe in a calm atmosphere and enjoy peace which is their basic rights.
