President Ashraf Ghani on Tuesday said that Afghanistan is at a critical stage of the war and that now is the time that the Afghan security forces will come up with more strength and decisiveness on the battlefields.
Ghani made the remarks during the introduction ceremony of Assadullah Khalid as Acting Minister of Defense and Amrullah Saleh, as Acting Minister Interior Affairs, two stanch anti-Taliban and anti-Pakistan veterans who have been major critics of Pakistan’s Afghan policy.
“We will still face destructive and imposed war until the we achieve peace,” Ghani said. “The management and leadership of the war needs more decisiveness, seriousness and planning.”
Meanwhile, the office of the Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah said the Afghan government finally reached to a conclusion that the war should not be stopped for peace and that the appointment of the two new security ministers is aimed to appear with more power on the warfronts.
At the same event, the National Security Advisor Hamdullah Mohib said peace cannot be achieved with “begging”.
“Peace is not supposed to be achieved by “beginning”. We are not begging someone, we cannot achieve peace by weakness, we will stand on the ground for our dignity and the dignity of our people, then it depends on the others how they treat us, making peace with us, our arms are open for them,” said Mohib.
Saleh and Khalid meanwhile pledged to use all their potentials for the service of the country and the Afghan people.
“I wish that the day I leave this post, the people attribute me with two qualities, and say that he was a sincere servant and a brutal minister against criminals and the enemies of the country,” said Saleh.
Meanwhile, an analyst and an MP spoke out about the implications of this shake up in the security sector, and said they hope it will overcome problems on the battlefields.
“When you pass on the message of war, the opposite side also passes on the same message, and this leads to further intensification of the war,” said military analyst Atiqullah Amarkhail.
“The hope is that they tackle issues and weaknesses on the battlefields so that they can achieve major gains on the battlefields,” said MP Sayed Ali Kazemi.
Ghani’s move to reshuffle the security leaders comes at a time that the US has intensified efforts for sealing a peace deal with the Taliban.
The second round of peace talks with the Taliban is scheduled to take place in Jeddah next month.
Amrullah Saleh and Assadullah Khalid have previously served as head of the National Directorate of Security under former President Hamid Karzai’s government.