The Afghan authorities are ready for peace and power-sharing with the Taliban (banned in the Russian Federation), but only if the Taliban meets certain conditions. This was stated by Afghan Foreign Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar in his interview for the Izvestia newspaper.
"Is the Afghan government ready to include the Taliban in some sort of power-sharing deal and work together? The answer is yes. We are ready to work with the Taliban, ready to take them into the government, ready to make peace with them and share power with them. And we don't have many conditions for that, in reality only one - internally the future of Afghanistan should be decided by the free will of the Afghan people, and on the external borders Afghanistan should not pose a threat to any other country, and we should not have any foreign terrorist force," Atmar said.
"That is, in fact, the single most important principle that we proceed from in any political settlement with the Taliban. Our government is willing to accept the Taliban as part of it on the condition that they stop supporting terrorism," he added.
Cooperation with other countries
Afghanistan is ready to cooperate with all countries and would like the republic to become a platform of cooperation rather than rivalry, the Afghan Foreign Minister said.
"We would like Afghanistan to become a place of cooperation rather than a place of confrontation and rivalry," he said. - "Afghanistan offers partnership to all the countries with which we have common interests".
"We offer this partnership not only to the US, we are also proud of our friendship with Russia, which is a good and reliable partner for us. We work with China, Central Asian countries, India. We have strong ties with Iran and good relations with Saudi Arabia. But we also hope for better relations with Pakistan. That is, we focus on creating an atmosphere of cooperation and working together for common goals," Atmar added.
The Foreign Minister also said terrorism, drugs and organized crime threaten the stability, security and prosperity of the country. However, he said, this is not only a threat to Afghanistan. "We all face a common threat, and we need to have a common strategy and shared responsibility to overcome this threat. So we invite all nations to work together with Afghanistan to neutralize it," the Minister said.
In July, a two-day meeting was held in Doha between a high-level delegation from Afghanistan and representatives of the Taliban. At the end of the meeting, the sides issued a brief statement of intent to continue peace talks. The head of the official delegation, Abdullah Abdullah, who also heads the High National Reconciliation Council, assured the meeting that the Afghan government is committed to resolving the conflict politically.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Russian Foreign Ministry
Based on materials from TASS