Reports on government, Taliban Eid ceasefire baseless

KABUL (Pajhwok): Reports about government and the Taliban agreement on five day ceasefire during Eid-ul-Adha are baseless, Pajhwok Afghan News learned reliably.

Claim: Some media outlets Khamma Press, Mandgar Newspaper, Gulba Etlaat Group have published reports that government and the Taliban negotiating teams during talks in Qatar have agreed on five days ceasefire including Eid days.

Khamma Press wrote: “Government and the Taliban negotiators have agreed to five days ceasefire and said that in order to restore trust some prisoners from both sides would be freed.”

Mandgar and Gulba Etlaat Newspapers also published similar reports claimed an agreement between government and the Taliban for five days of ceasefire.

Fact Check:

Faridon Khwazon, spokesperson for the High Council for National Reconciliation (HCNR), said no agreement between government delegation and the Taliban on ceasefire had reached.

A well-placed source from the Republic side in Qatar has said that government team offered ceasefire to the Taliban but the Taliban rejected the offer and they still wanted to continue fighting.

Meanwhile, the Taliban Qatar Office Spokesperson Dr. Mohammad Naeem on his twitter handler wrote no agreement on ceasefire reached during the meeting.

He added: “Some media outlets published reports on government and the Taliban agreement on five day ceasefire during Eid and release of some prisoners, this is not true, and no such agreement had reached. Without joint statement nothing else had been agreed upon.”

Afghan government delegation led by HCNR Chairman Abdullah Abdullah traveled to Doha and held high level talks with the Taliban delegation headed by Mullah Beradar.

In a joint statement after the two days meeting both sides agreed to accelerate the pace of negotiations to explore a durable, just and long lasting solution to Afghan conflict.

The joint statement stressed the need for the continuation of talks by their respective sides in Doha.

Outcome: Relevant sources have rejected the claim regarding government and the Taliban ceasefire during Eid.

Verdict: Baseless that negotiating sides have reached agreement on ceasefire during Eid.