Chairman of Afghanistan’s High Council for National Reconciliation, Abdullah Abdullah, called for significant reduction in violence on Sunday, a day after intra-Afghan peace talks opened in Qatari capital Doha.
Speaking at a press conference in Doha, Abdullah said that initially there should be significant reduction in violence, then a humanitarian ceasefire and then a permanent ceasefire.
“It would be miscalculation to think that causing more casualties would make people more hopeful about peace,” Abdullah warned.
More than 12,000 Afghans were killed and around 15,000 others were wounded since US-Taliban deal in February, Abdullah said at the inauguration of intra-Afghan peace negotiations on Saturday.
Abdullah also suggested that years-old disputes cannot be resolved in one or two days, but he said that it is the Afghan people who suffer the most from continuation of conflict.
He said that he agreed with the Taliban that there should be no foreigners in the negotiation room, but he added that their assistance might be needed at a later stage.
Meanwhile, Afghan government’s chief negotiator, Masoom Stanekzai, said that their first meeting with Taliban negotiators was held in a positive atmosphere.
He said that both sides introduced themselves to each other and discussed the agenda and the schedule of the negotiations.
