Taliban top leader to step in if talks fail

Agha Jan Motasim says he would start struggling for peace if current efforts with President Ghani fail

ISLAMABAD:

Amid prevailing doubts if the Afghan government and the Taliban would sit together to hold peace talks, a top Afghan Taliban leader, Agha Jan Motasim, says he would start struggling for peace if the current efforts with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani were to fail.

While the Taliban have never officially confirmed joining the intra-Afghan dialogue, Motasim – former chief of the Taliban’s powerful political commission who was also a close confidant of Taliban supreme commander Mullah Omar – has been actively involved in the peace efforts in the past.

However, he says he has temporarily stopped his initiative and fully backs the talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government.

“The current peace process is an opportunity and should not be missed. Peace and stability in Afghanistan and the region could be at risk if the peace process fails,” said Motasim, who served as finance minister during the Taliban rule in Afghanistan (1996-2001).

Published in The Express Tribune, March 30^th, 2015.