Peace Talks: Our patience has a limit, Afghans want outcome within two months: Hekmat Karzai

By Farhad Naibkhel-KABUL: Afghanistan expects a sensible change in the peace process within two months from the beginning of the four-nation talks, deputy foreign minister Hekmat Khalil Karzai said Tuesday.

Karzai said that “peace is a long process, but Afghanistan believes that we have opportunities in January and February and people must witness changes in this time”.

“In the session, we clarified the Afghan people and policy-makers do not have the patience they did last year,” Karzai told reporters. “We expected the talks to begin early 2015, which went to the midyear.”

The second round of the quadrilateral talks will be held in Kabul on January 18th. “The Afghan-drafted peace roadmap will be discussed in detail in this meeting,” Karzai said.

“Afghanistan has designed a roadmap which shared with Pakistani, Chinese and American colleagues.”

This roadmap consists pre-negotiation, peace talks, and an implementation plan, he added.

“The doors for the peace talks will be open for all groups including Mullah Akhtar Mansour, Mullah Rasoul, Haqqani network and Qatar office.”

He insisted that those groups that stand against the peace process will face all possible measures.

Peace talks do not mean that security forces will stop operations, we will continue talks, but at the same time security forces will continue defending our territory, said the Afghan negotiator.

“The participants reiterated their countries’ support for the quadrilateral meeting and vowed to facilitate an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace and reconciliation process.”

All four countries underscored the importance of bringing an end to the conflicts in Afghanistan that continues to inflict senseless violence on the Afghan people and also breeds insecurity throughout the region in the first meeting, he asserted.

The participants emphasized the immediate need for direct talks between representatives of the government of Afghanistan and representatives from Taliban groups in a peace process that aims to preserve Afghanistan’s unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity, he underlined.

Peace is a long dream for Afghan people and governments, but people are not sure still about Pakistan’s honesty to what it says regarding the process.