Tolo News: A spokesman for the High Peace Council on Tuesday said funding for 2,400 HPC projects has been embezzled and that key members of the council are being paid by foreign embassies. While appearing on a TOLO news current affairs show, Tawde Khabare, Mawlavi Shahzada Shahid, spokesman for the HPC, let slip that prominent members
By Frud Bezhan Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty March 23, 2016 Afghanistan has managed to bring one of the country’s most notorious militant leaders to the negotiating table after he dropped demands that all foreign forces leave the country. Now Kabul must consider whether Gulbuddin Hekmatyar’s offer to end a 15-year insurgency campaign in exchange for
Khaama Press: The acting provincial governor of northern Balkh province Ata Mohammad Noor has called on the government of national unity to update the Afghan people regarding the behind the scenes discussions on Afghan peace process. “The Afghan people need to know what is going behind the scenes, people need to know about the potential deals with
Khaama Press: The dissident Taliban leader Mullah Rasool has said he will not participate in peace talks with the government which is led by the Taliban supreme leader Mullah Akhtar Mansoor. In an interview with the UK-based Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), Mullah Rasool has said he is not opposed to reconciliation in principle, insisting that
VOA News Ayaz Gul March 17, 2016 ISLAMABAD—In a major move in efforts to end the conflict in Afghanistan, representatives of fugitive Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar have held preliminary peace talks with Afghan negotiators in Kabul. Hekmatyar, 68, leads the Hezb-e-Islami faction that has staged deadly attacks against the U.S.-led international forces and their Afghan
Aimal Faizi: The Taliban has rejected the Afghan government’s offer for peace talks as “futile” and “misleading”, saying they would be “contradictory” in the face of the fresh deployment of US troops and continued US air strikes and night raids in Afghanistan. Last week’s rebuttal came after the Pentagon deployed “hundreds” of new soldiers to back US
Xinhua: The Afghan Taliban has refused to take part in direct peace negotiations with the Afghan government, but diplomatic efforts are underway to start the process. The Taliban’s powerful leadership council cited “America’s deployment of fresh troops to Afghanistan, their airstrikes, night raids and Kabul administration’s expanded operations” as excuses to turn down the invitation to join the
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty March 13, 2016 An Afghan militant group, Hezb-e Islami, has said it is ready for peace talks with the government. The group led by notorious warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar said in a statement on March 13 that it wants peace. The U.S. State Department lists Hekmatyar as a “terrorist” for supporting Taliban
Afghanistan’s U.N. ambassador has said that more Taliban should be blacklisted by the United Nations if violence by the group continues in the country. Removal from U.N. blacklist has been one of major conditions posed by Taliban for joining peace talks. However, Mahmoud Saiqal, Afghanistan’s ambassador to U.N., was not optimistic if the insurgent group would
March 8, 2016 TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Pakistan’s Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has assured visiting British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond that Islamabad is still supporting a fragile peace process in neighboring Afghanistan. His comments on Tuesday came days after the Taliban announced that they would not participate in proposed peace talks with the Afghan