While an exact date for the start of intra-Afghan talks and the release of more than 300 Taliban prisoners remain uncertain, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in an op-ed for the Washington Post has said that failure of the peace talks with the Taliban will not be an option. He listed the cost in Afghan lives--and the risks taken in the release of Taliban prisoners, and he said that the Afghan people must receive a "dividend" for all they have paid. 

"To fail in our pursuit of a sustainable peace is not an option; it would demand a far deadlier price — one that the Afghan people, and our international partners, cannot afford to pay."

In the opinion piece, Ghani said that the Afghan people have paid a heavy price for peace and that the Taliban must accept the current Afghanistan.

“The Taliban must, in turn, acknowledge the changed reality of today’s Afghanistan. The Taliban must work with us to preserve and expand the gains the Afghan people have made over the past 19 years, including for the benefit of the thousands of Taliban fighters, and refugees and returnees, who will need to be immediately reintegrated into society,” Ghani writes.

Ghani wrote that the release of 400 Taliban prisoners was the most dangerous decision that the Afghan people have taken for peace.

“Last week, we made the decision to take another risk for peace. After releasing 4,600 Taliban prisoners to facilitate certain conditions of the US-Taliban deal of Feb. 29, we were confronted with the difficult issue of releasing 400 remaining prisoners convicted of serious crimes, including the killing of Afghans and citizens of the international community. We were assured that their release would fulfill the Taliban’s final demand before facing us at the negotiating table,” Ghani wrote.

This comes after the Afghan government on Thursday released 80 of the 400 high-value Taliban prisoners whose release was approved by last week’s Loya Jirga.

The Office of the National Security Council (ONSC) has so far said nothing about the remaining numbers of 320 prisoners.

Apparently, the delay of prisoners is also delaying the start of the peace process.

“Today the ball is on the Taliban’s court, if they are committed to peace, then they should swiftly endorse direct talks with the government of Afghanistan and agree on a ceasefire,” said Sarwar Danish, the second vice president.

“We expect these talks to get underway as soon as possible, the date for the trip of the (Afghan government's peace delegation to Doha) is not known yet,” said Abdul Hafiz Mansour, a member of the peace negotiating team of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.

The consultative Loya Jirga, the grand assembly of Afghan elders, last week approved the release of the 400 Taliban prisoners, a step that was seen as a key push for the start of the intra-Afghan negotiations. 

 According to government data, out of the 400 prisoners in question, 156 of them have been sentenced to death, 105 of them are accused of murder, 34 of them are accused of kidnapping that led to murder, 51 of them are accused of drug smuggling, 44 of them are on the blacklist of the Afghan government and its allies, six of them are accused of assorted other crimes, four are accused of unspecified crimes.

Sources have said that some countries such as the US, France and Australia have reservations about the release of some of the prisoners.

The list of 5,000 prisoners was given to the Afghan government by the Taliban to be released ahead of the intra-Afghan negotiations, which are now expected to be held in Doha.  

So far, the government has released 4,680 of the prisoners on the Taliban list, and an additional 500 that were not on the Taliban list. These last 500 were freed during Eid in response to the Taliban’s announcement of a ceasefire.

However, Afghan Foreign Minister Hanif Atmar in a telephone call with his Qatari counterpart on Saturday agreed for close cooperation between the two nations and the start of the intra-Afghan talks.