Call ceasefire to prove your control, Taliban told

KABUL: The Taliban should call a one-month ceasefire to prove they still control their forces, Afghanistan’s national security advisor said on Tuesday, amid signs the US wants to rekindle talks with the insurgents.

Hamdullah Mohib, a strong critic of earlier Us-taliban negotiations that excluded his government, said the Taliban no longer operate as a cohesive body and some commanders may have joined the Daesh group.

“If the Taliban really want peace, they should prove how much control they have over their commanders and how much they really obey their commands,” Mohib said at a press conference.

“Our suggestion is for a one-month ceasefire, followed by negotiations,” he added, noting that such a move should be a pre-condition for any eventual talks with the Taliban.

Mohib, Afghanistan’s former ambassador to the US, said any future negotiations should include his government, as well as Pakistan, which has long been accused of backing the Taliban.

“Pakistan should provide a guarantee that they will not support the Taliban or other groups like them and not give them safe havens,” he said. Pakistan denies it supports the Taliban. The US spent the past year pushing for a deal with the Taliban that would have seen the Pentagon pull thousands of troops from

Afghanistan in return for security guarantees.

But President Donald Trump cancelled talks last month as Taliban atacks continued, including one that killed a US soldier.

Zalmay Khalilzad, the US special envoy leading talks for Washington, has since spoken informally with Taliban officials in Pakistan, raising the possibility Washington seeks to resume dialogue.

Khalilzad was in Kabul on Sunday and visited Islamabad again Monday, though it was unclear if he spoke to Taliban officials on that visit.

The United States has welcomed China’s proposal to host a fresh meeting bringing together Afghan officials and the Taliban.

The Taliban last week said that China invited a delegation to talks in Beijing, the second such meeting ater a dialogue in Qatar in July that was co-arranged with Germany.

Afghanistan’s ruling elite and international power brokers must listen to the fast-growing youth population - including junior Taliban members - if the war is ever to end, the country’s new youth delegate to the United Nations says.

In a nation at war for 40 years and where two-thirds of the population is aged 24 or under, twenty-year-old Aisha Khurram says the younger generation’s concerns have been shunted aside even as they inherit the conflict.