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Afghan Republic and Taliban negotiators meet in Doha
Afghan Republic peace talks team members and Taliban representatives met in Doha in Qatar on Friday and discussed the need to speed up negotiations.
The talks, which started in September, have largely stalled while a US-proposed peace meeting scheduled for Turkey was also put on hold after the Taliban refused to attend.
In this time however, violence across Afghanistan has intensified.
“The two sides discussed the on-going situation of the country and emphasised speeding up the peace talks in Doha,” the Afghan negotiating team tweeted of Friday’s meeting.
Mohammad Naeem, a Taliban spokesperson, echoed those remarks, saying the talks would continue after the Eid holidays and that the two sides discussed expediting negotiations.
This step also comes as the US is on track to withdraw all its troops by September 11, as President Joe Biden announced earlier this year.
According to US Central Command (CENTCOM) last week, 104 military cargo loads of equipment have already been flown home.
Making progress in the intra-Afghan talks has been a top priority for the US as it begins pulling troops out and on Thursday, Washington’s special peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad said in his Eid message that both sides should commit to come together “in brotherhood, so that all energy and all talents of the nation can be focused without fear, on the building of a better society”.
He also called on Afghan and Taliban leaders to embrace peace. “In the spirit of Eid, this should include a firm commitment and a public promise to refrain from any acts of vengeance related to the divisions of the past.”
“While overcoming decades of mistrust and anger between warring parties is not easy, to make peace now is the only ethical and the only practical way forward.
“Unrelenting violence has convulsed Afghanistan for over two generations. Citizens live in fear, anxious of when and what the next attack will bring,” he said. .
US Vice President JD Vance said on Friday that Joe Biden administration left about $80 billion worth of military equipment in Afghanistan, which was a “catastrophic error.”
Vance made the remarks during a visit to a military base in Greenland.
He also said the Biden administration’s “catastrophic error” led to the deaths of 13 US soldiers in an attack during the evacuation at Kabul airport in August 2021.
Earlier, US President Donald Trump also criticized the abandonment of military equipment in Afghanistan and called for its return.
The Islamic Emirate, however, has said that the weapons left by the US in Afghanistan belong to the Afghans and will not be returned.
The Supreme Court announced on Saturday that based on the ruling of the supreme leader of the Islamic Emirate, 2,463 prisoners have been pardoned and released on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr.
The court said in a statement that the prison terms of another 3,152 prisoners have been reduced.
Eid in Afghanistan will be celebrated on Sunday or Monday, depending on the moon sighting.
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs on Saturday announced that feasibility studies of dams in four provinces of the country will begin this solar year.
The Economic Commission, led by Deputy PM Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, in its recent meeting decided to include the survey and feasibility projects of Grumby Dam in Maidan Wardak, Qara Tiri Dam in Balkh, Shana Nari Dam in Kandahar, and Wuch Nari Dam in Paktia in the budget for the fiscal year 1404.
In the meeting, the issues of construction of the Kandahar bypass highway, construction of Arghistan Dam, 90 km of electricity line from Kabul to Jalalabad, and completion of Sheikh Misri substation in Jalalabad were also discussed, and it was decided that the Ministry of Finance will allocate the revenues obtained from the Ganda Kotal lead and zinc mine in Yakawlang district of Bamyan province to these projects.
The Economic Commission meeting also approved a plan for the private sector’s investment in a 40 megawatts solar power generation project in the Hesar Shahi Industrial Park in Nangarhar province. According the plan, the private sector will invest $50.69 million in the project.
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