Afghanistan Times
Related Articles
AT News
KABUL: In the wake of a yearlong disagreement over power sharing between the two Afghan leaders, President Ashraf Ghani and former Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, US special envoy for Afghanistan reconciliation, Zalmay Khalilzad has once again called for formation of an inclusive government.
Khalilzad during a meeting with the Indian Foreign Minister, S. Jaishankar, they discussed issues related to Afghan peace process, prisoner release and resolving of political disputes among the Afghan leaders.
“I reached out to Indian FM Dr.S.Jaishankar yesterday to discuss the latest on the Afghan peace process,” Khalilzad twitted. “We also discussed the need for both the Afghan government and the Taliban to accelerate prisoner releases, support a prompt reduction in violence, and start intra-Afghan negotiations.”
He has praised Delhi’s engagement in efforts to promote Afghan peace process and pave the ground for a lasting peace in Afghanistan, saying that US is committed to a sustained engagement with India on “this objective”.
Afghanistan is weathering a deep crisis over bitter political divisions between its two leaders squabbling over presidency since September election results. Now, Russia is pointing fingers at the White House for the turmoil.
Kremlin has heaped scorns at Washington for stoking the flames of political polarization in Afghanistan by endorsing one of the two presidential candidates after announcement of the fraud-riddled election outcome months ago – which pushed the country to the brink.
In a tweet, Russian foreign ministry hinted at a U.S. attempt to circumvent barriers facing the long-awaited intra-Afghan peace talks, but insinuating that the United States “played a part in the current aggravation of the political standoff in Kabul by de facto recognizing one of the presidential election candidates as the winner”.
