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Khalilzad calls on Afghan leaders to start talks with Pakistan on peace issue
Zalmay Khalilzad, US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation, has urged Afghan leaders and politicians to start “serious negotiations” with Pakistan in order to resolve the Afghan peace issue, sources said.
A number of Afghan politicians, who have recently met with Khalilzad, stated that Khalilzad has urged Afghanistan to send a high-ranking delegation to negotiate with Pakistan.
Pakistan has played a key role in the Afghan peace process since the beginning of US efforts to find a political settlement for long-term conflict in Afghanistan.
The country has repeatedly been accused of supporting terrorist groups and the Taliban inside Afghanistan. The country, however, denies the claims, stating peace and stability in Afghanistan are beneficial to Pakistan and that the country itself has been a victim of terrorism.
Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister, last month stated: “Pakistan has paid a huge price because of the unstable environment in Afghanistan; we have paid a huge human price and we’ve paid a huge economic price that is why we feel a stable peaceful Afghanistan is in Pakistan’s national interest.”
Khalilzad’s appeal to Afghans comes during his visit to the region, which includes Kabul, Qatar and other regional states, and appears to be aimed at pushing all stakeholders to restart serious peace talks.
“It is too late for the US to show decisiveness to force the Taliban to come to the negotiating table. Khalilzad said he will go to Doha and will force the Taliban to hold serious negotiations,” said Abdul Basir Salangi, an Advisor for the High Council for National Reconciliation.
In a meeting with former president Hamid Karzai, the US delegation led by Khalilzad, called for serious negotiations to address issues with Pakistan and suggested they send a high-ranking delegation to Islamabad, sources said.
“Khalilzad has emphasized [the need for] political consensus, convening of a Loya Jirga and resolving issues with Pakistan,” Jafar Mahdawi, head of Hizb-e-Millat-e-Afghanistan said.
Sadai Banowan, a women-run radio station in Badakhshan province has been shut down for playing music during the holy months of Ramazan.
Moezuddin Ahmadi, the director for information and culture in Badakhshan province, told the UK’s Guardian that the station had violated the “laws and regulations of the Islamic emirate” several times by broadcasting songs and music during Ramazan and was shuttered because of the breach.
“If this radio station accepts the policy of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and gives a guarantee that it will not repeat such a thing again, we will allow it to operate again,” said Ahmadi.
Station head Najia Sorosh denied there was any violation, saying there was no need for the closure and called it a conspiracy, the Guardian reported. The Taliban “told us that you have broadcast music. We have not broadcast any kind of music,” she said.
The Islamic Emirate’s spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid says Daesh has been destroyed by the security forces in the country and is not as big a threat as it was a year ago.
In a recent interview with Voice of America, Pashto, Mujahid said that the Afghan security forces “since August 2021, have arrested and imprisoned around 1,600 to 1,700 Daesh militants and have killed more than 1,100.”
The remarks came as the IEA usually downplays the presence and the threat of Daesh militants in Afghanistan.
Mujahid said Daesh hideouts had been destroyed across the country, including in Zabul, Kunar and Jawzjan provinces, and that Daesh fighters were mostly supported by the previous government. Some of them escaped from the prisons during the regime change.
However, he added that the Afghan security forces either killed, arrested, or imprisoned them.
Daesh has claimed responsibility for a number of attacks in the past few months including one last month close to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which left six people dead and dozens wounded.
The Ministry of Interior says the special forces from the ministry and the 209th Army Corps of Al-Fatah carried out an operation and rescued a businessman who was kidnapped a month ago in Balkh, Mazar-e-Sharif city.
The ministry said on Twitter the trader was abducted in the first district of Mazar-e-Sharif city by kidnappers and a ransom of $300,000 was demanded for his release.
Two of the kidnappers were arrested in this operation, the officials said.
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