Afghan peace: Taliban, their rivals to sit face-to-face in Paris

Senior members of the Afghan Taliban and their rivals will sit face-to-face with foes in France later this month at an international conference to discuss peace future of war-shattered Afghanistan.

The Taliban said Monday they will send a two-member delegation to the conference sheduled to be held in Paris on December 20-22.

Foundation for Strategic Research Patis will orgazine the moot to seek opinion of the Taliban and their about the transformation from military to political posture, the post-2014 situation and the presidential elections.

“The Islamic Emirate has also received invitation to participate in this conference so the Islamic Emirate has decided to send two of their representatives from their political office. As the conference will discuss the situation in Afghanistan, the Islamic Emirate is sending their representatives to convey their stance to the international community and the participants of the conference directly,” a Taliban statement said Monday. Taliban refer themselves as Islamic Emirate. The statement was sent to the media by email and was posted on their website.

“Our representatives will only address the conference and as this conference is a research and scientific conference, therefore no agreements would be made with anybody and no talks would be held with occupying forces or the Kabul administration,” the statement said.
It said that the reports published in the media outlets in this regard and participation in this conference is meant as participation in peace talks are just propaganda and is aimed at creating confusion.

The statement said that such baseless propaganda was circulating during the conference in Japan as well and the facts were clear to all people later and the liars were disgraced.
Taliban had previously attended a conference in Japan earlier this year.
Afghan sources said that a senior Taliban negotiator, Maulvi Shahabuddin Dilawar, may lead the Taliban delegation to the moot, however, no final decision has yet been taken in view of his name still on the UN sanctions list, which also ban his travelling abroad.

Dilawar, who has served as senior diplomats in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, is part of the Taliban negotiation team in Qatar, who has held series of talks with the American officials there.

The France meeting will be the first interaction between the Taliban and the Afghan opposition since 2001, when the U.S. airstrikes dislodged the Taliban government in Kabul, that had also paved the way for the Northern Alliance to return to Kabul.

Hizb-e-Islami, led by former Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, will send a three-member delegation to the conference, the Hizb leader, Dr Ghairat Baheer, said. Baheer, also the main Hizb negotiator, will lead the delegation.

The Afghan government has also welcomed the France meet. The Afghan Foreign Ministry said that it support all initiatives that can pave the way for peace in Afghanistan.

Afghan sources say that Masoom Stanekzai, a senior official of the Afghan High Peace Council and Haji Din Mohammad, advisor to President Hamid Karzai will also attend the conference.

Senior leaders of the Afghan political opposition, Younas Qanooni and Dr. Abdullah Abdullah will also attend the conference.

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Posted by Tahir Khan on Dec 10 2012. Filed under Latest News, Pakistan, South Asia, World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.