Khalid Noor not removed from negotiating team: Govt

KABUL (Pajhwok): The Presidential Palace on Sunday rejected President Ashraf Ghani has removed Khalid Noor from the government’s negotiating team.

The Afghan government’s negotiating team has 21 members including Khalid Noor, son of Atta Mohammad Noor, executive chief of Jamiat-i-Islami Party.

After the sacking of former public health minister Ahmad Jawad Osmani, Atta Mohammad Noor strongly reacted to the government’s decision and said that he rejected a telephone call from the president to discuss the matter. He said he was ready to meet Ghani only if Osmani was reinstated.

A number of Afghan Facebook users circulated fake news that the president has removed Khalid Noor from the government’s negotiating team after Noor’s reaction to Osmani’s sacking.

Eng. Mohammad Haidar, in his Facebook page, said, “President Ashraf Ghani removed Khalid Noor from the negotiating team after protests from Atta Mohammad Noor over removal of Ahmad Jawad Osmani.”

A number of other social media users also posted similar reports.

However, the Presidential Palace rejected these reports as baseless and said Khalid Noor has not been removed from the negotiating team.

Mulavi Attaullah Lodin, a member of the government’s negotiating team, also told media persons today that Khalid Noor would travel with other members of the team to Qatar on Monday. He said Noor was in the list of team members that would depart to Doha.

After 80 days of discussions between the Taliban and government representatives in Qatar, the two sides were able to agree on the procedural rules for peace talks.

The negotiating teams went on a recess on December 12 for a period of three weeks, in order to discuss developments made in talks and decide on future negotiations.

The government’s negotiating team is expected to travel to Doha on Monday and resume talks with the Taliban on January 5.

Mds/ma