Pakistan makes an appeal to the Afghan government and Taliban
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*Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi advised on Friday Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to talk to the Taliban and their sympathizers and convince them to give up violence.*
The Afghan government should accept that the Taliban have support among the Afghans and they are a “reality”, the foreign minister told Al-Jazeera.
“The Taliban and people who are sympathetic to them, they are a reality,” Al-Jazeera quoted Qureshi as saying. “Who are they? They are Afghans. Talk to them, tell them, convince them that they should give up violence and shift from the bullet to ballot.”
The talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government are part of a peace agreement signed between the US and the insurgent group in February 2020. Pakistan has been facilitating the negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan government since 2019.
Qureshi also advised Taliban negotiator Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar to “accept the change” in Afghanistan, saying they should “accept this new reality”.
