Afghanistan Times
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AT Monitoring Desk-Kabul: The Taliban reiterated Sunday its preconditions for the restart of the peace talks with the government. The preconditions include the removal of their leaders’ names from the international terror blacklists.
“Establishment of official venue, removal of blacklists and prize lists, release of prisoners and ending poisonous propaganda” are mentioned as the preconditions in a statement the group sent to media, calling them as the viewpoints of its representatives participated in the Pugwash conference in Doha, Qatar.
Delegates from Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the United States met two times this month to find a so-called ‘roadmap’ of bringing the militants back to the talk table.
The first round of the discussion between the government and the Taliban collapsed as the militants pulled their representatives out after the death of the founder and leader of the group Mullah Omar was announced last July.
“The political office of the Islamic Emirate is the only authorized and responsible entity assigned to carry out talks,” the statement said, referring to the group’s office opened in 2013 in Qatar.
The office was closed after the then president Hamid Karzai opposed it, calling it against the sovereignty.
The statement also called for the withdrawal of the foreign troops from Afghanistan. “The invaders should leave the country and give the Afghan people opportunity to determine their fate themselves.”
