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KABUL: 12 countries have expressed readiness to host the peace negotiations between the government of Afghanistan and Taliban insurgents, foreign ministry says.
Hanif Atmar, acting foreign minister said Friday that 10 of the regional countries and two European states are keen to host the talks.
Germany and Norway, Atmar said are the European countries that had talked to him about hosting the talks.
He said that Iran, Pakistan, Russia, China, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Qatar, Indonesia and Japan were the Asian nations want the talks to be held in their capitals.
The acting foreign minister also said that 4,400 Taliban prisoners were already released from government custody, but the remaining 600 ones would be kept since they have “serious problems” that the law doesn’t let them go out.
He called on the Taliban militants to send a list of other their prisoners to be released instead of these 600.
He assured to release 600 other Taliban prisoners to show that the government was interested to hold peace negotiations and that Taliban also show good will.
Atmar said that the peace negotiations would be held in Qatar once the prisoner release was completed.
The acting foreign minister said all the regional and world states hated the continuing violence in Afghanistan and believe that it would be unjustifiable as Kabul indicates honesty in releasing all Taliban prisoners.
“Now, the region and the world want reduction in violence, intra-Afghan talks and cease fire.”
