Ceasefire and Taliban sanctuaries should be taken seriously in advancing peace process, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani told visiting US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad on Wednesday.
It was Khalilzad’s first visit to Afghanistan following a prisoner swap that was seen as a confidence building measure after the collapse of peace talks in September.
US State Department in a statement said that in Kabul, Khalilzad would discuss how best to support accelerated efforts to get all parties to intra-Afghan negotiations.
After Kabul, Khalilzad will travel to Doha to rejoin talks with the Taliban to discuss steps that could lead to intra-Afghan negotiations and a peaceful settlement of the war, specifically a reduction in violence that leads to a ceasefire, the statement said.
During Kabul visit, Khalilzad met also with Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah and other political leaders, where he raised the demands of the US and the Taliban for peace, according to a statement from CE’s office.
Participants of the meeting called for intra-Afghan negotiations to begin immediately. They said that domestic consensus and representativeness and inclusiveness of the negotiating team was a condition to success of intra-Afghan talks.
