John Kerry urges Taliban to join peace talks
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KABUL: US Secretary of State John Kerry urged Taliban to rejoin direct peace talks with Afghan government to end the 14 years old war in the country.
Kerry said “We call on Taliban to enter into a peace process, a legitimate process that brings an end to violence.”
Kerry urged Afghan leaders from different parties to work together to stabilize the country.
Kerry holds separate meetings with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah during his unannounced visit of Afghanistan.
Kerry said “Democracy requires credible institutions.”
“More than that, it requires people from different political, ethnic and geographical factions to be able to come together and work for the common good.”
Kerry’s statement came after a month of Taliban’s refusal to join peace talks until their terms and conditions to be fulfilled.
Taliban spokesperson said on March 5 “We want to repeat our stance once again that until the occupation of foreign troops ends, until Taliban names are removed from international blacklists and until our detainees are released, talks will yield no results.”
Quadrilateral Contact Group based on Pakistan, China, US and Afghanistan launched peace talks with Taliban which were postponed due to some issues between Afghan government and Taliban.
Source: www.nypost.com & www.washingtonpost.com
