Afghan government-Taliban peace talks deferred

KABUL (Pajhwok): The Afghan govement on Sunday said direct peace talks scheduled to take place next week with the Taliban had been deferred.

It comes a day after the Taliban refused to participate in peace talks with the Afghan govement until their preconditions were met.

Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah’s deputy spokesman Javed Faisal told Pajhwok Afghan News that the peace talks with the Taliban had been deferred indefinitely.

He said the Afghan govement had no problem to initiate peace talks and the four-nation group, the Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG), was working to pave the ground for the negotiations.

The QCG in late February holding its fourth meeting in Kabul aounced that they invited the Taliban to join peace talks with the Afghan govement in Pakistan in the first week of March.

But the Taliban on Saturday publicly declared they would not join peace talks with the Afghan govement as neither their supreme leader nor the leadership council had made any decision in this regard.

On Sunday, the United States waed the Taliban to either join the peace process or face a join onslaught of the American and Afghan forces.

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