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KABUL: A jihadi leader said he was optimistic to the intra-Afghan talks to be held next week in the Chinese capital city of Beijing, hoping it could open “a new door to the main peace negotiations”.
Mohammad Ismael Khan, who served as minister of energy and water in the former president Hamid Karzai’s government, said Wednesday that he would attend the negotiations scheduled for October 28 and 29.
This would be the third meeting between Taliban and political leaders from Kabul after the February talks in the Russian capital of Moscow and the second one held in July in Doha, the capital of the Middle Eastern state of Qatar.
Taliban have confirmed their delegation led by the militants’ head of political office in Qatar would go to Beijing to attend the talks.
Khan said that this time, government representatives would also take part in the meeting, if officially confirmed, the first time that Taliban are going to sit with President Ghani’s government. The insurgents declined in the past to hold meetings with the government, which they call a US puppet.
“I hope this meeting would open the door of more important talks about peace,” said Khan.
However, he said that the Beijing meeting would be an intra-Afghan dialogue and would not have main and important results.
“There are many delicacies in the peace process. The nine rounds of talks between Taliban and Khalilzad raised hopes, but we saw it stopped.”
Khan said that the situation in Afghanistan was as critical as it had harmed the involved countries and the war continuation was unacceptable for them.
The war is even intolerable for Taliban and the government of Afghanistan. The heavy casualties force them to accept peace,” he said.
However, Kabir Haqmal, Spokesman of National Security Council said that the government was yet to decide whether attend the meeting.
