*KABUL: The Taliban said on Sunday they would send a delegation to Russiafor a rare meeting with Afghan opposition leaders, just days after peacetalks with the United States that excluded the Kabul government.*
The two-day sit-down in Moscow, starting on Tuesday, will be attended bysome of President Ashraf Ghani’s chief political rivals, but none of thegovernment envoys tasked with Taliban negotiations.
Ghani has appealed to the insurgents to talk after being frozen out of sixdays of discussions between the Taliban and the United States in Doha lastmonth that sealed the outlines of a peace deal.
Among those who have confirmed their attendance in Moscow is Haneef Atmar,who is running against Ghani in the presidential elections, former warlordAtta Muhammad Noor and former Afghan president Hamid Karzai — both Ghanirivals — are also attending.
Noor on Sunday said the meeting was “a pathway towards strengthening thepeace efforts led by the US” while Atmar described it as “an important steptowards intra-Afghan peace talks”.
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A senior Taliban official said they would send a delegation, but describedthe meeting as non-political and “arranged by some organisations based inMoscow”.
The Russian Embassy in Kabul issued a statement late on Saturday on behalfof the “Afghan Society of Russia”. The group said it had invited“influential figures” to the dialogue in the President Hotel in Moscow. “Weare ready to play our role in bringing peace to Afghanistan,” the statementread. – APP/AFP
