President Ashraf Ghani upbeat over Taliban’s Eid truce offer
KABUL: Afghan President Ashraf Ghani vowed on Sunday to speed up the release of Taliban prisoners, and said he was ready to hold peace talks with the insurgents after accepting their surprise offer of a ceasefire.
The Taliban proposed a three-day truce over the Eid Al Fitr holiday that marks the end of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan starting on Sunday, which Ghani swiftly agreed to.
“As a responsible government we take one more step forward — I announce that I will expedite the Taliban prisoner releases,” Ghani said in an address to the nation marking the holiday.
A Us-taliban deal signed in February stipulated that the Afghan government would release up to 5,000 Taliban prisoners while the insurgents would free about 1,000 Afghan security force personnel.
The prisoner swap is seen as a confidence-building move ahead of long-awaited talks between the government and Taliban.
Kabul has so far released about 1,000 Taliban inmates while the insurgents have freed about 300 Afghan security force personnel.
Ghani said a government delegation was “ready to immediately start the peace talks” with the insurgents.
Government negotiators would be headed by Ghani’s former bitter rival Abdullah Abdullah after the two signed a power-sharing deal last week that ended a months-long political crisis.
Abdullah also hailed the ceasefire offer and said peace talks should now be the priority as the country also grapples with rising coronavirus infections.
“Peace is the priority of the people of afghanistan ,” he wrote on Twitter, adding that he welcomed any step that ends the “long suffering” of the country.
The Taliban have repeatedly mocked members of Ghani’s administration, referring to them as “puppets” controlled by foreign powers.
The militants’ offer of a truce comes just days after leader Haibatullah Akhundzada urged Washington “not to waste” the opportunity offered by the deal with the US that set the stage for the withdrawal of foreign troops from the country.
US Special Representative to Afghanistan
Zalmay Khalilzad, who brokered the deal, said on Twitter on Saturday that the United States welcomed the ceasefire.
He urged the Taliban to continue to abide by the agreement, calling the halt in violence “a momentous opportunity that should not be missed” while pledging that the United States would “do its part to help.”