Speaking about the The Moscow Meeting that was held on 9th of this month, former president Hamid Karzai, said that it was the ‘first and accurate step taken towards building peace and stability in Afghanistan and in the Region’.
Talking to Kazakhstan State TV, Karzai said he is optimistic about Russia’s efforts on the Afghan peace process.
He also said that even though no representative from the Afghan government was in direct talks between the US officials and Taliban in Qatar, he is hopeful that such meetings will bring peace to the region and put an end to war in the country.
“In the peace talks in Moscow, which was the first time such a talk was taking place in a major regional capital of the world with the neighbors of Afghanistan all present there including from Kazakhstan and where delegations of the Taliban and delegations of the Afghan Peace Council sat together, the Afghan ambassador was there in that meeting, so, we see it as a positive step, a first step, that will definitely give us results and we hope it will continue to keep convening and keep looking for a solution eventually that suits all of us,” said Karzai
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Karzai’s remarks come while the US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad started his second round of talks over the Afghan peace process.
In his first visit, Khalilzad had pressed on formation of negotiation teams for The Afghan Government and Taliban to discuss peace.
Earlier Russia’s presidential envoy for Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov had said that Russia’s efforts to help an Afghan peace settlement have been driven not by a desire to undercut the US efforts, but by legitimate security concerns. He had stressed that the continuing fighting in Afghanistan threatens the interests of Russia and its allies in Central Asia.
