Afghanistan forms team to negotiate peace talks with Taliban

The Afghan government has formed a 12-member team to hold peace talks with the Taliban, President Ashraf Ghani announced in the Swiss city of Geneva.

The negotiating team will seek a peace agreement that would include the Taliban in a democratic and inclusive society that respects the rights of women, Ghani told a UN conference on Wednesday.

“I’m pleased to announce today that after several months of intensive consultation with our citizens across the country, we have formulated a roadmap for peace negotiations,” Ghani said.

“We have formed the required bodies and mechanisms to pursue a peace agreement. We are now moving ahead into the next chapter of the peace process.”

The Afghan leader also announced that the negotiating team will be led by presidential chief of staff Salam Rahimi and there would also be an advisory board, comprising nine diverse and representative committees, to input into the negotiations.

“Presidential elections in the spring are key to successful peace negotiations. The Afghan people need an elected government with a mandate to obtain ratification, implement the peace agreement and lead the societal reconciliation process.”

“Implementation will take a minimum of five years to reintegrate six million refugees and internally displaced people,” he said.

The key confidence-building measures would need to happen early on, within the first year, he added.

The offer of peace was unconditional but the peace was conditional on acceptance by Afghan society, he said.

Afghanistan’s chief executive Abdullah Abdullah said the five-phased approach would start with an intra-Afghan dialogue, followed by discussions with Pakistan and the United States, then regional actors, the Arab Islamic world and finally NATO and non-NATO countries.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the war that has dragged on for more than a decade and cost billions of dollars.