Afghanistan Times
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KABUL: Former head of High Peace Council Karim Khalili said Wednesday that peace talks with Taliban in Doha is a result of forty years of resistance of jihadi leaders and martyrs of resistance era and that these efforts will not be squandered.
At a seminar to showcase scientific artworks of the late Burhanuddin Rabbani, Khalili said that peace negotiations with Taliban is not a gift granted by foreign countries, but it is an outcome of four decades of resistance free from bigotry, discrimination and injustice.
“Peace must put an end to all these years of bloodshed and mayhem, a peace that will be lasting, just and dignifying,” he said.
His statements come on the anvil of peace negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban who are still negotiating semantics and agendas of talks since early this week. Both sides have reached a consensus on principles in recent discussions and an agreement on agenda is still being negotiated.
Intra-Afghan peace talks began Saturday six months after the U.S. and the Taliban signed a peace deal in February. The agreement will bind the U.S. to pull out its troops from Afghanistan, the Afghan government to free thousands of Taliban prisoners.
Seeing itself in a tight spot, Afghanistan government released almost 6,300 Taliban fighters and set motion for the start of the intra-Afghan talks. The U.S. has also begun drawing down its troops to bring their number down to 4,500 by November, with an almost full withdrawal scheduled for 2021.
