Members of government’s negotiating team likely to change

Sources close to Abdullah Abdullah say that there is a possibility of a change in the government’s peace negotiating team.

While the Intra-Afghan talks are about to start soon, the High Council for National Reconciliation informed that changes might take place in the composition of the government’s peace negotiating team.

On the other hand, some sources told Ariana News that some members of the negotiating team had symptoms of Covid-19 disease and were currently in quarantine.

The sources added that for the same reason, the first meeting of the Intra-Afghan talks would be held remotely.

“Our team is ready. Now the Taliban must prepare to negotiate,” said Farooq Majrooh, a member of the government’s peace negotiating team.

Meanwhile, the Afghan government has said that with the release of 3,000 Taliban prisoners, the release of other prisoners will be conditional to the reduction of violence by the Taliban.

This comes as the former NATO SCR, Sir Nicholas Kay has said, “Yes, the Taliban stopped attacking coalition forces. Yes, they stopped attacking high-profile targets in cities […] but they were killing Afghan security forces, Afghan civilians in rural areas [and] districts across the country at a very high rate.”

This comes as Zalmay Khalilzad is to visit Islamabad and Kabul in his new round of travels after the Doha trip, and is expected to finalize the time and place of talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government.

Although the Taliban have said that they see Qatar as a good place for the talks, the Afghan government is not interested in holding the talks in Doha.