Afghan peace council members to talk with Taliban in Qatar: Karzai

Some members of Afghan High Peace Council will travel to Qatar to hold formal peace talks with the Taliban, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Tuesday.

“Members of peace council will go to Qatar to initiate peace talks with the Taliban,” Karzai told a joint press conference with the visiting NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

Earlier on Tuesday, Afghan local media reported that the Taliban had opened a political office in Qatar earlier in the day.

“We initially supported the opening of Taliban office in Qatar. But Afghanistan wants the peace talks to take place inside Afghanistan,” the Afghan leader said. However, he did not give a date for the proposed meeting.

The 70-member of the peace council leading by Salaudin Rabbani, son of former council chairman Burhanuddin Rabbani who was killed in an attack in Kabul in 2011, was set up by the government in summer 2010 to initiate peace talks with the Taliban.

Karzai and other leaders have repeatedly offered peace talks with the Taliban. However, the insurgent group has categorically rejected the offer, saying there will be no talks until foreign troops leave the country.

Earlier on Tuesday, Karzai and Rasmussen attended a ceremony held in a military university in west of Kabul during which Karzai announced that the Afghan national forces will lead all military operations in the country from June 19.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Tuesday that NATO forces will no longer plan, execute or lead combat operations in Afghanistan.

The remarks came after Afghan President Hamid Karzai announced at a ceremony in Kabul that his country’s security forces are taking over the lead for security nationwide from the NATO coalition.

“This decision marks an important milestone. As Afghan forces step forward, ISAF’s role will shift from combat to support. We will no longer plan, execute or lead combat operations,” Rasmussen said in a statement.

Around 97,000 troops from NATO countries and its partners are stationed in Afghanistan. NATO has decided to withdraw all combat troops from the Central Asia country by the end of 2014 and leave a much smaller force behind for a new mission.

Called “Resolute Support,” Rasmussen said the goal of the new mission “is to train, advise and assist the Afghan forces.”

“NATO and Afghanistan, along with our partners, will continue this journey together, based on a new relationship that will remain strong for the years to come,” he said.

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Posted by Tahir Khan on Jun 18 2013. Filed under Latest News, 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.