Mohammad Masoom Stanekzai, the ex-chief of the National Directorate of Security who is heading the government's negotiating team during the ongoing peace talks with the Taliban, has told the Afghan parliament's upper house on Thursday that the government remains committed to reaching and implementing a lasting ceasefire agreement with the militant group
KABUL (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th October, 2020) Mohammad Masoom Stanekzai, the ex-chief of the National Directorate of Security who is heading the government's negotiating team during the ongoing peace talks with the Taliban, has told the Afghan parliament's upper house on Thursday that the government remains committed to reaching and implementing a lasting ceasefire agreement with the militant group.
"Our efforts are focused on the implementation of the ceasefire and the end of the violence, and we have made great efforts to reach an agreement between the two sides," Stanekzai said.
The head negotiator added that the recent visits of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah, the chairman of Afghanistan's High Council for National Reconciliation, to Qatar, the site of the ongoing intra-Afghan negotiations, gave the talks a new impetus.
The peace negotiations between the government and the militant group began in Doha on September 12 following the completion of a prisoner exchange process that was drawn up when the Taliban and the United States signed an agreement this past February.
Despite the ongoing talks in the Qatari capital, violent clashes and bomb blasts continue to ravage Afghanistan, prompting the international community to call for a reduction in violence.
