VOA News Ayaz Gul February 23, 2016 ISLAMABAD – Diplomats from Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the United States have begun a new round of four-way discussions in Kabul amid expectations the delegates will set a date and venue for the direct peace talks the Afghan government wants to conduct with the Taliban.In a speech to the
Khaama Press: An influential political and religious figure Pir Syed Ahmad Gilani has been appointed as the new Chief of the Afghan High Peace Council. The former Afghan Vice President Karim Khalili has been appointed as the Deputy Chief of the High Peace Council along with Mawlavi Ata-ur-Rehman, Mawlavi Khaibar and Habiba Surabi. The new appointments comes days
The New York Times: On an old Cold War battlefield where Russia fought a nearly decade-long war against United States-supplied fighters, Moscow has a new strategy: the cold shoulder. “We won’t join the useless events, and we’ve already told the Americans,” President Vladimir V. Putin’s envoy to Afghanistan, Zamir N. Kabulov, told Russian state news media this
Los Angeles Times: Ahmad Zia Massoud has blasted the peace strategy as a “waste of time” given the Taliban’s successes and the government’s weakness, and said the four-nation effort – which includes the United States, China and Pakistan – is doomed to fail. Click here to read more (external link).
By RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan February 15, 2016 Afghanistan’s leaders have urged the Taliban to end its 15-year insurgency and negotiate an end to the war. President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah both made the calls during an event in Kabul on February 15 commemorating the withdrawal of the Soviet Army from Afghanistan
VOA News Ayaz Gul February 15, 2016 ISLAMABAD—A close aide to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani says he is “very positive” that direct peace talks with Taliban insurgents will take place before the end of this month with no conditions from either side. Efforts are under way to determine the venue for the much-anticipated meeting. In
Michael Hughes: Kabul attempting to negotiate with the Taliban is a worthwhile endeavor for symbolic purposes alone, not to mention the brute fact the war will never end if parties to the conflict never communicate. With that being said, however, expectations should be set that striking a peace deal is highly unlikely in the current environment,
ISLAMABAD, Feb. 10 (Xinhua) — A senior Pakistani diplomat on Wednesday emphasized a “step-by-step approach” and opposition to any precondition for the peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban. The comments came days after the four-nation meeting in Islamabad decided to set date for the Afghan peace talks by the end of February.
Khaama Press: Ahmad Zia Masoud, the Special Envoy to President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani for reform and good governance, believes that the ongoing process for peace talks with Taliban is the game of Pakistan’s intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). While talking to a gathering in Takhar province on Wednesday, Masoud said that the purpose of this process
VOA News Ayaz Gul February 10, 2016 ISLAMABAD—The latest U.S. intelligence assessment is skeptical about prospects for political reconciliation in war-torn Afghanistan and has warned it is at “serious risk of a political breakdown during 2016.” U.S. National Intelligence Director James Clapper told a Senate committee Tuesday the Kabul government faces persistent hurdles to political