Germany to help facilitate intra-Afghan talks: Special envoy

KABUL on Wednesday said he would visit a number of regional countries, including Qatar, to help advance the Afghan peace process.

Deputy Foreign Minister Idrees Zaman and Germany’s special representative for Afghanistan Markus Potzel took part in a gathering titled “Women’s role in peace process.”

Speaking on the occasion, Zaman said efforts had been lately intensified to secure peace in the country. He said the outcome of the sixth round of peace talks between Taliban and US representatives was against their expectations.

But he said in the upcoming seventh round of peace talks, “friendly countries” would play a vital role in facilitating intra-Afghan dialogue.

He said the friendly countries included Germany and Markus Potzel had started his trip for the same purpose.

He said, “Under the president leadership, our aim is to create a regional and international consensus on peace, as we have our European Union (EU) partners who have the same vision of support with Afghanistan in order to hold Afghan owned and Afghan led peace process where women’s rights are considered.”

He said Germany would play positive role in promoting the peace process as per the Afghan government’s demand.

He said the Germany’s special representative for Afghanistan would visit a number of regional countries, including Qatar, to push for intra-Afghan talks as per the demand of Afghan government.

He termed guaranteeing women’s rights as vital in any peace deal and said the government’s red lines would be Constitution and women’ rights.

Markus Potzel said their desire in Afghanistan was peace and an end to the war and there was a great opportunity to end the ongoing conflict.

In case the situation in Afghanistan turned suitable, Germany would withdraw its forces, adding EU member countries wanted to save the two decades achievements in Afghanistan in the peace process.

A meeting was scheduled between Taliban, political figures, government officials and US representatives around two months back, but it was canceled over conflict on participants’ names list.

Markus Potzel said US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad would leave for Qatar in near future to resume peace talks with Taliban there.

pk/ma