The High Peace Council (HPC) is working on plans to hold a “big conference” of religious scholars from Afghanistan and Pakistan in the near future.
The HPC Chief Mohammad Karim Khalili said the Afghan delegation is discussing the conference with the Pakistani religious scholars as he addressed a five-day workshop on “communications, negotiations and mediation for provincial peace committees” held by a German institution.
“Our delegation has held sessions with Pakistani Ulema yesterday (Friday) and today (Saturday). We are holding workshops here and they are exchanging views there (in Islamabad). These are good successes,” Khalili said.
Khalili meanwhile rejected the reports on Taliban’s talks with Afghan officials in Saudi Arabia.
“So far no official and direct talks has taken place between government and Taliban, between the High Peace Council and the Taliban. Anything that has been said so far are rumors,” he said.
“The preliminary talks that have taken place between the US and the Taliban, although they have failed in the first instance, stir hope as a prelude to kick stating an Afghan-owned and Afghan-led peace process but we know that both trust in each other and a joint vision of a prosperous Afghanistan is key,” said Hans Joachim Giessmann is Executive Director at the Berghof Foundation.
German Ambassador in Kabul Peter Prügel said that Berlin will continue its political and economic support to peace and stability in Afghanistan.
“This peace process should be an Afghan-owned and Afghan-led peace process. And this is what we and the international community, Germany and the foundation are in favor of,” said German ambassador Peter Prügel.
The Afghan government has hosted many conferences on peace this year. The meetings held in the country and abroad include the Second Kabul Process Meeting in June, gathering of over 2,000 Afghan clerics in Kabul in March, the Islamic Countries Religious Scholars Meeting in Indonesia in March, Tashkent Peace Summit on Afghanistan in March, Islamic Scholars Meeting in Saudi Arabia in March and the US Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Allice Wells’ meeting with Taliban representatives in Qatar in July.