Daily Times

Senior Afghan, Russian and American diplomats have called for the early start of the intra-Afghan negotiations and reduction in violence as a trust building move ahead of the key talks.

The Afghan Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that pursuant to the Afghan Government’s efforts at strengthening regional and international consensus in support of the peace process with a focus on an early start of the intra-Afghan negotiations, the Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammad Haneef Atmar, convened a trilateral meeting of Afghanistan, Russia and the United States via video tele-conference.

Ambassador Zamir Kabulov, the Special Presidential Envoy of the Russian Federation for Afghanistan and Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, the Special Representative of the United States for Afghanistan Reconciliation, led their respective delegations at the meeting held on Monday.

The three countries reiterated their strong commitment to an Afghan-owned peace process and support for safeguarding Afghanistan’s achievements over the past 19 years, an Afghan Foreign Ministry’s statement said.

The Russian and the US Governments welcomed the Afghan Government’s commitment and progress towards releasing of the Taliban prisoners as a necessary step towards early start of the intra-Afghan negotiations. The parties called on the Taliban to reciprocate the Afghan Government’s move by releasing all Afghan Government prisoners held by them consistent with their commitment in the Doha Agreement. Under the Taliban-US agreement signed in February, Taliban would release up to 1000 Afghan government prisoners but Taliban have released nearly 500 prisoners so far while the Government has released 3000 Taliban. President Ashraf Ghani last week announced to release 2000 more Taliban. The process of the release of remaining Taliban has not yet started. A Taliban leader says their leadership council has in principle agreed to start the negotiations and the council members are holding consultations to finalise agenda for the talks.

The Afghan, Russian and American diplomats recognized the importance of ensuring a positive atmosphere for the impending negotiations, and called for a significant reduction in violence as a confidence building measure, according to the statement. The Afghan Government’s proposal concerning the establishment of a monitoring mechanism for compliance with ‘Reduction in Violence (RiV) measures and to ensure mutual accountability overall through the peace process was described as a positive contribution.

The parties welcomed the readiness of both sides to the intra-Afghan negotiations for an early start of the negotiations and expected that an initial meeting between the negotiating teams must be held immediately to agree on agenda and next steps. Consistent with the Doha Agreement, the parties expected that achieving a permanent and comprehensive ceasefire will be included in the agenda of the intra-Afghan negotiations at the outset. The parties agreed on the importance of regional and international cooperation as key to sustaining the intra-Afghan negotiations and ultimately to the success of the peace process.

In this context, the parties called for further consultations through existing or new inclusive regional and international mechanisms aimed at further strengthening regional and international consensus in support of the peace process. The parties agreed to meet again in this trilateral format to discuss the progress made in the intra-Afghan negotiation process. Schedule and details of the next meeting are to be determined through diplomatic channels.