Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Friday, March 29th, 2024

HIA for Talks to Bring Peace and Stability

HIA for Talks  to Bring Peace and Stability

KABUL - Afghan President Hamid Karzai met with a delegation of the Islamist political party Hezb-i-Islami on Monday afternoon to restart peace talks, just over a fortnight after the group announced it was suspending them.
Ghairat Baheer, the son-in-law of Hezb-i-Islami leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, led the delegation which met Karzai and the High Peace Council to discuss the peace talk plan, according to a statement from the Karzai's office.
"Officials from the Afghan High Peace Council and Hezb-i-Islami also discussed and expressed optimism about the talks," the statement said.

At the end of the meeting, both sides agreed to continue the talks in order to bring peace and stability in Afghanistan, the President's office said.
The six Hezb-i-Islami members arrived in Kabul on Saturday, Qazi Amin Waqad of the High Peace Council said.

The second largest Afghan insurgent group suspended formal talks with the Afghan government on March 29 after claiming neither Afghan nor American officials would seriously consider its 15-point peace proposal.
Qaribur Rahman Saeed, a representative of Hezb-i-Islami in Europe, said the leader Hekmatyar would no longer take part in formal talks until its 15-point National Rescue Agreement was seriously considered.

The plan called for the withdrawal of coalition forces by July 2010, holding new elections and possibly rewriting the Afghan Constitution.
Hezb-i-Islami first presented the plan during talks with the Afghan government in February 2010.

The Hezb-i-Islami was founded by Hekmatyar in 1977.
Hekmatyar was one of the prominent Jihadi leaders who fought against the Soviet troops. He was Prime Minister during Burhanuddin Rabbani's time as President, in 1993-1994 and for a stint in 1996.

Hezb-i-Islami's visit coincides with the appointment of Salahuddin Rabban as the new head of the High Peace Council, replacing his father Burhanuddin who led the council until he was assassinated by the Taliban last year.
Salahuddin was previously Afghanistan's Ambassador to Turkey, before he was appointed acting chairman of Islamist political party Jamiat-e-Islami, the party his father led from 1968 to his death in 2011. (Tolo News)