Moscow meeting: Kabul rejects peace overtures without its input

Afghan presidential spokesman says it’s for his govt to decide whether or not to lift sanctions on anyone

ISLAMABAD: Kabul will not accept any decision taken without its input, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani said on Wednesday, a day after senior Pakistani, Chinese and Russian diplomats held talks in Moscow on peace in the war-torn country.

“Other countries should deal with the Afghan government rather than [other Afghan] groups,” Dawa Khan Meenapal said, referring to the joint statement of the trilateral meeting which stated that Russia and China would work on removing Afghan individuals from the United Nations sanctions list to help launch talks between Kabul and the Afghan Taliban.



“Any decision by other countries minus Afghanistan is unacceptable,” Meenapal said in a debate aired by Mashaal Radio. “This approach is not in the interest of the stability of the region.”  He added that it is for Kabul to decide whether UN sanctions on any person should be lifted. “Any decision to delist anyone will be done on request of the Afghan government.”



Earlier, Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Shakeeb Mustaghni was quoted as saying that his government had not been consulted about the objectives of the trilateral meeting.



Russia’s special envoy for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov in reported comments said the trilateral consultations would lay “grounds to establish a wider regional partnership” against the emerging threats of terrorism. He told RIA Novosti that it was in the regional stakeholders’ natural interests to protect themselves from terrorist spillover, noting that containment efforts should take the form of an “Afghan-regional” project.

The joint statement at the end of the three-way meeting also ‘welcomed’ Afghanistan to participate in consultations.

Meanwhile, the Afghan Taliban late Wednesday welcomed China and Russia’s move to help lift sanctions on its leaders.

Sohail Shaheen, spokesman for the Taliban political office, said “it is a positive development that the regional powers have recognised the Islamic Emirate as a political and military force.”

Published in The Express Tribune, December 29^th, 2016.