KABUL (TCA) — Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani in a phone conversation with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on November 4 agreed to a meeting which will be held in Beijing and will include a Taliban delegation to discuss Afghanistan’s peace agreement, TOLOnews reported citing Afghan presidential spokesman Sediq Sediqqi.
The meeting, to be held in the “near future,” will be the first time that China hosts delegations from both the Kabul government and the Taliban to exchange views on the peace process.
“The date of the meeting will be announced by China. The Afghan government will soon share a list of its participants with the Chinese government,” Sediqqi said.
In other news, Afghanistan’s Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah has criticized a new peace plan put forward by President Ghani as an unrealistic “wish list,” RFE/RL reported on November 5.
Ghani’s team last month released a seven-point proposal aimed at building on the U.S.-Taliban talks and bringing an end to Afghanistan’s 18-year-old war.
“To be honest, nobody has taken that so-called seven-point plan as a plan…it’s rather a wish list,” said Abdullah, who is Ghani’s adversary in a September 28 presidential election that has yet to decide a winner.
“Nobody is taking it seriously — neither the people of Afghanistan, nor anybody,” Abdullah said on November 5 in an interview in Kabul with French news agency AFP.
Observers have questioned whether certain proposals in the plan — including a call for a month-long Taliban cease-fire before talks resume — are feasible.
The Taliban has so far refused to talk to the Afghan government, which it says is a U.S. puppet.
