The head of the High Peace Council (HPC), Mohammad Karim Khalili, at a gathering on Friday called on the Taliban to join the peace process and said ‘the continuation of fight by the Taliban is a mistake’.

“We urge all the armed anti-government groups, especially Taliban to join the peace process and take more steady steps in this respect,” he said. 

“We have said repeatedly and now also we say that there is no unilateral lost in peace process,” Khalili added.

The HPC chief invited Afghans for national unity and said solidarity among the people was a need to stand against terrorists.

“One of the old wishes of armed anti-groups in Afghanistan is to create sectarian and ethnic divisions. We have felt and tasted sectarian and ethnic divisions and our people will not go back to those days,” said Khalili.

Meanwhile, Khalili pointed out to parliamentary and district councils’ elections and said the polls should be held in a transparent way in order to respect peoples’ will.

Khalili was appointed as head of HPC ahead of the Kabul Conference this month, but he has not officially started his work so far. 

"It is not important for armed groups that who leads the High Peace Council. For the Afghan people, it is important that when the Taliban accept the peace process," said Fatima Azizi, an MP.

This comes after Taliban leader Mullah Hebatullah Akhundzada said in his Eid message on Friday that the group is against the increase of foreign troops in Afghanistan.

He said in the message that after the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, Kabul will have friendly relations with Washington and with the rest of the world.