KABUL - Speaking at a debate on the sidelines of the Munich security conference in Germany, the president explained since 2015, American casualties in Afghanistan were 66, compared to over 2,500 in the past.
Ghani asked the Taliban and their supporters to show their vision for Afghanistan and explain it to the people. “The people of Afghanistan will elect you, we will be delighted to turn power over to you.”
“Some of the Taliban imagine that they can go back to 1996, that is not a choice that today's Afghanistan is going to buy in,” Ghani said.
The president stressed the peace must be citizen-centered, not elite-centered and because of it the forthcoming election in July was a must
“The talks need to take place, bargaining needs to be hard, but it needs to be principled, there needs to be principled flexibility, not flexibility in any kind,” he said on talks with the Taliban.
He said for the first time in history of Afghanistan, principle was chosen over power and the government of national unity was their first peace. “We avoided conflict, we showed that an inclusive political process is possible.”
Ghani said the peace the Afghan public sought was a sustainable peace that would last, not one of those concluded within five years. “The conflict that re-erupts is 10 times worse.”
He recalled around 33,000 Taliban young fighters came to cities during the ceasefire -- the week before there were 1,000 casualties.
“In those three days, no one was molested, insulted, humiliated. It shows that our society is opting to overcome the past and choose the future.”
About changes to the Constitution as demanded by the Taliban, he said the supreme law needed to be amended, it but through constitutional processes:
About a loya jirga, Ghani said all streams would be brought together in the consultative Loya Jirga which would take place within a month. (Pajhwok)