Afghan Govt Firmly Focuses On Election For Now: Sediqqi

Source Link

Presidential spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said on Saturday that the Afghan government has suspended the peace efforts and has prioritized the election to make it happen on 28 September.

Mr. Sediqqi says there will be a “big change” in the country’s security within the next 10 days.

“Nothing will impede the presidential election from happening on September 28,” he said.

Mr. Sediqqi said the next government will work on peace which will be established after the presidential election.

He said that the Taliban is the main reason for cancelation of the peace negotiations and the group is still continuing its violence in Afghanistan.

“We believe that the key to the legitimacy of peace is in holding the [presidential] election and peace cannot be held without legitimacy,” he added.

According to Mr. Sediqqi, the Taliban’s attempts to visit Moscow and other countries show the group has “politically failed” in the peace efforts. 

“The Taliban has lost the main venue for peace,” he said.

Pakistan has not made any “clear attempt” against terrorists so far, Mr. Sediqqi said

Pakistan’s counterterrorism policy is not in favor of the region, he says.

Meanwhile, President Ghani at a campaign rally in Kandahar province on Saturday said peace will be prioritized after the election is held.

He called on the Taliban to embrace peace. He added that he is ready to hold talks with the Taliban in any corner of Afghanistan.

This comes as a delegation of Taliban held talks with Russian special envoy for Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, in Moscow to discuss recent developments around the Afghan peace process, Russia’s TASS news agency reported.

“The delegation is here in Moscow. We have already met Z. Kabulov, Special Envoy for Afghanistan, to discuss with him the recent developments regarding the peace process in Afghanistan,” a Taliban spokesman Sohail Shaheen, said as quoted by TASS on Friday.

This comes as the US President Donald Trump called off negotiations with the Taliban in which the two sides finalized an agreement in principle which would have paved the ground for a gradual withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan.