Moscow/Kabul: Afghanistan’s government officials have expressed readiness to meet Taliban’s representatives in a meeting hosted by Russia in its capital, the media reported.
The meeting was earlier scheduled for September 4. However, Kabul refused to participate in it just days before, Afghanistan’s TOLO News reported on Friday.
According to TASS news agency, diplomats continued to hammer out all the details for the new meeting in Moscow on the Afghan settlement.
“Kabul is upbeat on participating in the upcoming conference”, Russia’s Special Presidential Envoy for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov told Izvestia daily, following a discussion with Afghanistan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Nasir Ahmad Andisha on Thursday.
The Afghan minister said that details of the conference were being worked out.
The exact date of the meeting is still unknown, but Afghan officials declared their readiness to meet with representatives of the Taliban movement, according to the Russian official.
“Kabul is determined to participate in the Moscow-hosted meeting. Now we are in the process of developing modalities for this participation. Currently, the main thing is not the date, but the content, so this is the part that we are working on,” he told Izvestia.
In August, a delegation from the Afghan Taliban met Uzbekistan officials during a five-day trip to the country. Issues including transport, power lines and peace in Afghanistan were discussed, the movement’s political office said.
Muhammad Sohail Shaheen, spokesperson for the Taliban’s political office, had said the group’s representatives met Uzbek Foreign Minister Abdul Aziz Kamilov and Special Representative for Afghanistan Ismatulla Irgashev during the August 6-10 visit.
He said they “discussed current and future national projects such as security for railroad and power lines.
“Views were also exchanged with officials of Uzbekistan about the withdrawal of foreign forces and how to achieve peace in Afghanistan,” Shaheen had said.
[source_without_link]IANS[/source_without_link]