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Tashkent Calls on Taliban to Accept Ceasefire, Join Peace Talks
Uzbekistan on Tuesday called on the Taliban insurgent group to accept a ceasefire and offered to host peace talks between the Afghan government and the insurgent group.
“We stand ready to create all necessary conditions, at any stage of the peace process, to arrange on the territory of Uzbekistan direct talks between the government of Afghanistan and the Taliban movement,” Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev told a conference in Tashkent.
Mirziyoyev emphasized that there is no other option to eradicate terrorism except supporting the Afghan government.
The Tashkent international peace conference on Afghanistan kicked off today aimed to end the ongoing violence in war-torn Afghanistan.
President Ashraf Ghani and representatives of 23 foreign countries and international organizations participated in the conference.
Speaking at the conference, President Ghani urged all countries to cooperate with Afghan peace talks, adding that the region will not reach to stability without peace in Afghanistan.
He added that Afghanistan will “exhaust every means available” to achieve a peaceful and political solution to the war in Afghanistan.
Ghani called on participants to “support the intra-Afghan peace process through an influence in power to persuade Taliban and their supporters to join the peace process”.
In addition, he insisted on enhancing mechanisms of regional cooperation against transnational terrorist networks and criminal organizations because the regional countries have a shared goal and the “threats are common”.
“We are the frontline in the global fight against terrorism, in the first line of defense of regional and global security. Because there has been a lot of rumors regarding the extent of Daesh and other activities. Let me bring some facts to your attention. The total number of Daesh-Khurasan (IS-K) is fewer than two thousand,” he said.
At the same meeting, the European Union foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini announced the Union support for the Afghan-led peace talks and called Ghani’s unprecedented peace offer to Taliban a golden chance to the group.
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Girls’ education is a ‘vital issue’ for Afghanistan: Karzai
Former president Hamid Karzai said in a meeting with Iran’s ambassador and special representative, Hassan Kazemi Qomi, that education of girls was a “vital issue” for Afghanistan.
Karzai said he appreciated Iran’s cooperation and its standing with the Afghan people, especially Iran’s contributions to education in Afghanistan.
During the meeting, Karzai said peace and stability in the region are in the interest of all regional countries.
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Uzbekistan’s humanitarian aid arrives in Balkh
A shipment of humanitarian aid from Uzbekistan was handed over on Thursday to the local officials of Balkh province in the trade port of Hairatan.
Local authorities said the aid, which includes flour, oil, wheat, sugar and meat, has been handed over by Uzbekistan’s Surkhandarya governor to the governor of Balkh.
The governor of Surkhandarya stated the purpose of sending this aid was to support the people of Afghanistan and stressed the need for the development of good relations between the two countries.
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Afghanistan’s problems caused more damage to Pakistan than 3 wars with India: Durrani
Islamabad’s special envoy for Afghanistan Asif Durrani said on Wednesday that Pakistan has suffered more due to Afghanistan’s internal situation than Pakistan has suffered in three wars with India in terms of blood spilt and finances drained.
Durrani said at a one-day International Conference titled “Pakistan in the Emerging Geopolitical Landscape”, which was organized by the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI) and the German Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), that over 80,000 Pakistanis died in the two decades of the War on Terror and that his country was still counting its dead and injured.
“After the withdrawal of NATO forces, it was hoped that peace in Afghanistan would bring peace to the region. However, such expectations were short-lived,” he said.
He also stated that attacks by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militant group on Pakistan’s border areas increased by 65 percent, while suicide attacks increased by 500 percent.
“The TTP’s enhanced attacks on Pakistan while using Afghan soil have been a serious concern for Pakistan. Another worrying aspect is the participation of Afghan nationals in these attacks,” he said.
Durrani also said Pakistan had suffered geopolitically since the Soviet Union invaded the neighboring country.
“The post-9/11 world order has negatively impacted Pakistan. Apart from losing 80,000 citizens’ lives, including 8,000 law enforcement agency personnel, the country’s economic opportunity cost is estimated at $150 billion,” Durrani said.
Talking about the future outlook for Pakistan in the regional context, Durrani said that while “our eastern neighbor is likely to continue with its anti-Pakistan pursuits, the western border poses an avoidable irritant in the short to medium term.”
However, he said Pakistan can overcome its difficulties with Afghanistan, including the TTP challenge.
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