KABUL - The U.S. Chargé d’Affaires urged the Afghan government for concluding the stalled prisoner swap process and come to a negotiating table with the insurgent group without a delay.
“The Afghan people have made clear their impatience. Start intra-Afghan negotiations now so that discussions on a permanent and comprehensive ceasefire can begin,” the United States Chargé d’Affaires, Ross Wilson, said in a Twitter thread.
He also called on the Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani and his power-sharing partner Dr. Abdullah Abdullah to implement the agreement they struck earlier on May.
“We urge this country’s leaders promptly to establish the new government, create the High Council for National Reconciliation, complete the exchange of prisoners, and move to the opening of intra-Afghan negotiations,” Mr. Wilson said.
The peace talks, however, remained stalled due to a delay in fulfilling a precondition of the direct talks between Afghans—which was a complete release of prisoners.
The Taliban has claimed that under the February’s peace deal, it has released roughly 800 prisoners of the Afghan government so far whereas the Afghan government announced nearly 500 of the inmates were from the Afghan forces–the rest were all civilians.
On the other hand, the Afghan government, as per reports, has so far released nearly 4,400 of the insurgent group’s captives. But it insists it won’t release those prisoners of the group who were behind serious crimes. (TKG)