Afghan President Ashraf Ghani declined Wednesday to meet with US special envoy for peace Zalmay Khalilzad who arrived in Kabul after signing a deal with the Taliban, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Khalillzad is expected to instead meet Ghani’s elected vice president, Amrullah Saleh, the report said, citing an unidentified Afghan government official.
Sediq Sediqi, a spokesman for the president, denied that Ghani declined meeting with Khalilzad.
According to the report, Ghani’s difficulties with US have been increasing in recent months.
The US hasn’t recognized Ghani’s re-election following a disputed presidential contest with his main rival Abdullahlast year. Ghani has refused to release 5,000 Taliban prisoners as included in the US-Taliban deal.
The prisoners are expected to be released before March 10, when intra-Afghan talks are expected to begin.
The Taliban, have stepped up their attacks on Afghan forces. Khalilzad said on Wednesday that increasing violence is a threat to the peace deal and must be reduced immediately.
He said that he had talked with Taliban deputy leader Mullah Baradar and his team in Doha the need to decrease violence as well as exchange of prisoners.
“US is committed to facilitating prisoner exchange, agreed in both US-Taliban Agreement & US-Afghanistan Joint Declaration. We will support each side to release significant numbers,” Khalilzad said on Twitter.
“We must act on all fronts to clear the road of obstacles that slow our progress toward intra-Afghan negotiations,” Khalilzad said, “I once again call on all Afghans to rise to the occasion, put country first and not to lose this historic opportunity.”
