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KABUL: President Ashraf Ghani on Tuesday said the peace process had become complicated because of the regional and global aspects of the war in Afghanistan.
He said Afghanistan, Pakistan, the US and China had prepared a roadmap for reviving peace talks between his administration and the Taliban. He hailed the plan as a breakthrough in itself.
Speaking at a joint news conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg here, the president said the plan evolved by the quadrilateral group clearly defined the causes of the conflict.
Ghani added: “It’s not a domestic conflict and the framework differentiates between reconcilable and irreconcilable elements. The peace drive will tell who wants peace and who doesn’t.”
The four-nation group had decided to talk to pro-peace outfits and fight against the people refusing to join the reconciliation drive. The framework would have been simple if the war had been domestic, he remarked.
Ghani called peace a longstanding demand of every Afghan, but the conflict’s externaldimensions had made the process very complicated. He stressed preparedness for the worst situation and planning for the best-case scenario.
However, he underlined the need for lasting peace, something that needed patience. The president said it would be premature to comment on the outcome of the peace negotiations.
In response to a query, he said Islamic State militants were on the run, following a massive military operation that included elite commando units in eastern Afghanistan.
He linked the success in dislodging Daesh loyalists to ground operations, combined with close air support and the participation of retired commanders who had joined an elite commando division of the army to confront the extremists in Nangarhar.
“I promised the people of Nangarhar that no quarter would be given to Daesh, and none has been given,” Ghani recalled. “In Nangarhar, Daesh is on the run,” he reiterated. -Pajhwok
THE PASHTUN TIMES
