KABUL – A former official of the Taliban has said that the two-day talks inAbu Dhabi around Afghan peace was important because of Saudi Arabia’sparticipation as according to him, the US and the Taliban acknowledge theKingdom’s role in the talks.
In a report on Thursday, Arab News quoted Mutasim Agha Jan, Taliban QuettaShura member and former finance minister of the group during their rule inAfghanistan from 1996 to 2001, as saying that Taliban has a lot of respectto Saudi leadership and its government.
According to the report, Mutasim said the role played by Saudi Arabia iskey to success for the talks.
His remarks come amid increasing efforts by the Afghan government and itsinternational allies, US on the top, to find a peaceful solution to theAfghan conflict.
In line with these efforts, the US Special Representative for AfghanistanReconciliation, Zalmay Khalilzad, on Thursday met with Afghan governmentleaders, political leaders and activists in Kabul to discuss the Afghanpeace.
In an interview with TOLOnews on Thursday, Khalilzad said Taliban hasaccepted that they cannot win militarily and that political settlementshould be sought for ending the crisis in the country.
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The Arab News report says that Mutasim described the talks in the UAE as animportant phase, reasoning that the process now enjoys support from SaudiArabia, Pakistan, and the UAE.
He termed Pakistan’s participation in the talks and its role as important.
He said that the details of the discussion were unlikely to be made publicand that things will be clearer going forward.
