Govt pins hope on Saudi meeting on Afghan peace

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AT-KABUL: The government-funded High Peace Council says it was optimistic to the results of Saudi meeting to be held to discuss Afghan peace program.

Hajji Din Mohammad, deputy chairman of the council, said Monday that Saudi Arabia was an influential country over Taliban and has good relationships with the group, sot the results of the meeting seemed hopeful for him.

He added that former president, Hamid Karzai had called for such meeting during his tenure, but the latter had some conditions to host the meeting.

“Mr. Karzai frequently asked Saudi to host a meeting, but Saudi king had presented conditions including that Taliban should cut relations with the al-Qaeda terrorist group and Kabul administration should grant more authorities to the militants. Taliban were not ready to accept these conditions at that time, thus, the meeting was postponed. Now the meeting that is suggested by the Organization of Islamic Conference is a good chance with better results,” said Mohammad.

A big meeting participated by the representatives from the Organization of Islamic Conference member countries is to be held today (Tuesday) in Jeddah due to the call of Saudi king.

Yousuf bin Ahmad, head of the organization, has already thanked Saudi king for his efforts towards Afghan peace process.

Saudi had hosted another meeting by the Islamic scholars in July, which called for immediate stop of the current war in Afghanistan.

Aryan Yoon, a member of parliament believes that Saudi was paying more attention to Afghan issues, saying the meeting would be followed by good results.

“Such conference could be fruitful for bringing peace to Afghanistan, because they are held by a higher level hosted by Saudi king. Now, the Saudi government pays more attention to Afghanistan comparing to the past and this is good news. I hope this conference will have a good and fruitful result,” she said.