Taliban provided ‘greater platform’ in Moscow talks: HPC

KABUL comments raised hope for peace and stability in the country.

Saleem said the first part of the Taliban’s comments at the November 9 summit were merely a campaign for themselves.

The second part of the Taliban comments were not their own viewpoints and the third part in which the Taliban demanded release of their prisoners, creation of a specific address for peace talks and future government structure raised hopes for peace in the country, he said.

He said they believed there was no reason the Taliban could present for fighting in Afghanistan and efforts should be made to ensure an end to the decades-old conflict in Afghanistan.

Saleem said Russia gave the Taliban a chance to showcase themselves and the group took maximum advantage of the opportunity.

But Russian Embassy diplomat Abert Khoref rejected HPC’s deputy head claim that Russia provided a platform to the Taliban to showcase themselves, defend their position and hold interviews with media.

He said the Taliban and the HPC were provided equal platform and rejected Moscow wanted to bring the Taliban under its control. He said Russia had no plan to control the Taliban and the only purpose of the Moscow talks was peace and stability in Afghanistan.

Nikolay Plotnikov, head of the Russia Centre of Strategic Studies, who participated in the meeting through Skype said Russia was able to bring the Afghan government and the Taliban to the negotiating table for the first time.

“We are strictly following the situation in Afghanistan and we believe the conflict in Afghanistan could not be resolved through military means and we also acknowledge no side in Afghanistan supports fighting,” he said.

He said now it was the time that the fighting in Afghanistan should come to an end through intra-Afghan dialogue.

He added Russia was striving to get cooperation of Pakistan and China in building peace in Afghanistan, but cautioned some circles in Afghanistan were creating hurdles in the way of peace and reconciliation.

Plotnikov went on to say that some groups in Afghanistan did not want peace and that the war-torn country was not independent in matters related to peace.

He added the US force did not consider the role of Afghanistan’s neighbours such as Iran, Russia, China and Pakistan and did whatever they want.

He said Russia had invited the US as well to the Moscow talks, but they only sent an observer showing little interest in the peace efforts.

nh/ma