KABUL (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 01st December, 2019) Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the head of the Afghan Hezb-e Islami party, called on Sunday on parties to the internal conflict to reach peace.
The remarks were made several days after US President Donald Trump had announced the resumption of talks with the Taliban radical movement during his visit to the war-torn country. The Taliban have repeatedly called the Afghan government a puppet of the United States and sought talks with Washington, instead of Kabul.
"As peace talks begin with the Taliban, there is a need to make peace with the parties and groups, which involved in the civil, or internal war," Hekmatyar said at a meeting of the Peace and Rescue Council.
Not all members of the Peace and Rescue Council share Hekmatyar's position. Farooq Azam called for a quick start of the US-Taliban negotiations as well as the international community's assistance in the process.
The United States and the Taliban had for nearly a year been attempting to negotiate a peace deal that would ensure the withdrawal of foreign troops in exchange for the movement's guarantee that the country will not become a safe haven for terrorists. The talks, however, excluded the Afghan government over the Taliban's unwillingness to talk to Kabul. The negotiations ended with no results as Trump announced in September that the talks were "dead" after the Taliban had claimed responsibility for a terrorist attack in Kabul that killed a US serviceman.
