The Afghan government-backed negotiators and Taliban leaders Saturday confirmed peace talks in the United Arab Emirate and said both have agreed to initiate formal talks inside and outside Afghanistan.
The Taliban former Finance Minister Mutasim Agha Jan, who led his team in talks with a four-member delegation of the Afghan High Peace Council in Dubai, said the Taliban leaders have agreed to peacefully resolve the Afghan issue.
In Kabul the peace council also said the Taliban leaders have agreed to join the intra-Afghan dialogue.
The Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid has recently disowned peace efforts by Mutasim Agha Jan and said the group has not assigned any responsibility to him.
Mutasim, also a former close aide of Mullah Omar, who once headed the Taliban’s powerful Political Council, has now launched his peace movement the “Islamic Movement of Taliban” and claimed in an earlier interview that his recent meeting in Dubai was attended by seven former Taliban ministers and other top leaders and military commanders.
The Taliban leader said Saturday a high ranking delegation of his faction met with senior members of the Afghan High Peace Council recently in the UAE and both sides agreed to analyze all dimensions of the issue deeply and to find a permanent solution instead of working on interim formats of the solution.
“They also agreed upon convincing all the faction to play their role seriously to bring peace and stability to the country,” Mutasim said after the meeting.
He said the Taliban leaders in the Dubai meeting had shown their willing towards an everlasting peace and prosperity, establishing an Islamic system and ultimately making an end to current crisis through an intra-Afghan dialogue.
Both sides also agreed to call the UN Security Council for removal of Taliban leaders’ names from black list and lifting sanctions on their travels and other activities.
Representatives of the Islamic Movement of Taliban welcomed the recent decision of Afghan president Hamid Karzai regarding release of Taliban and other Afghan prisoners from Bagram detention centre, Mutasim said in a statement sent to the media late Saturday.
“They (Taliban negotiators) also urged the Afghan government via HPC delegation to release immediately all those remaining Afghans kept in various jails, detention centers as well as other military and intelligence camps.”
Both sides also agreed mutually upon introducing a team of clerics and academics from the Islamic Movement of Taliban to work for peace and reconciliation.
The team from one hand would have to be sincere to the case while from other hand their names would neither be in black list, thus they could participate freely in meetings, talks and conferences held for finding solution to the crisis, the Mutasim said.
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