Kabul, Afghanistan: Taliban are ready to join Afghanistan Peace Conference in Tashkent to be held on March 26-27.
Political indicators received in Capital of Afghanistan suggest that Taliban are ready to attend Afghanistan Peace Conference in Tashkent if they (Taliban) are invited by President Ashraf Ghani. However, no official comments are released by Taliban yet to confirm that they would definitely attend this conference.
The conference titled “”Afghanistan – path to a peaceful future” is initiative of Uzbekistan to bring peace in Afghanistan. Uzbek Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov said in Uzbek press that his country is committed to bring peace in neighbouring Afghanistan.
Uzbekistan believes that the choice of finding peace process remains the only solution to take Afghanistan out of decades-old civil war and all stakeholders need to sit together and find a way out to ensure better future of Afghan nation.
Sources in Kabul confirm that fighting faction of Taliban can join talks in Tashkent and a serious dialogue can be initiated because Kabul government is now ready to negotiate with Taliban.
Sources say that Kabul government wants talks without fixing preconditions but Taliban demand certain conditions to join talks.
There is a pressure on Kabul government from neighbouring countries as well as from some western countries to sit with Taliban for talks while US-led forces present in Afghanistan believe that use of power against Taliban and talks with them should go side-by-side. It may be mentioned that President Ashraf Ghani in his opening remarks at the second Kabul Process Conference held in Kabul on Wednesday offered peace talks to Taliban to “save the Country” (Afghanistan) from further disaster.
Meanwhile, United States has also supported peace talks in Tashkent and State Department spokesman Heather Nauert that Uzbekistan plays a historical role in the stability of Afghanistan, and this conference can in many ways be considered the return of (Uzbekistan) to the international arena.
“This is an initiative under the leadership and responsibility of the Afghans themselves, the goal (meetings) is to try to bring together a number of international partners to coordinate international efforts to support the actions of the Afghan government to achieve peace,” Nauert said.
