Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Thursday, March 28th, 2024

Ashraf Ghani: We Must Reach a Political Settlement

Ashraf Ghani: We Must Reach a  Political Settlement

KABUL - President in an exclusive interview with BBC said, “We must reach a political settlement”, referring to the peace he added, that there is a “window of opportunity to accelerate the peace process” following NATO’s no final decision on troops’ withdrawal.
According to BBC, NATO currently has 10,000 troops in war-weary Afghanistan, and under the US-Taliban deal, they were due to leave the country by May 2021.
President Ghani told BBC that NATO’s announcement provided an opportunity for “all parties to the conflict to recalculate and reach a conclusion that we’ve long reached, that use of force is not the solution”, he added pointing to the increased violence that there is a need for a “concrete effort” globally “to send signals that certain types of behavior are unacceptable”.
The stay time and the number of international troops “depends on the intensity of the war” president Ghani told BBC.
As Biden Administration continues to review the US-Taliban deal during Trump’s presidency, while most US troops are not US forces, NATO forces will find it hard if US troops pullout from the country, BBC reported. 
After 9/11 US troops invaded Afghanistan to remove the Taliban but the movement regrouped by 2018 and two-thirds of the country threatened the elected government, according to BBC.
President Ghani said he was delighted with his relationship with the Biden administration and found a new coherence among the international community towards Afghanistan.
“The force of coherence is what I’m counting on to avoid the tragedies. There’s so many fears of collapse into civil war,” he said, acknowledging that both sides were preparing for warfare.
But he dismissed fears of a Taliban military victory. “This is not Vietnam. The government is not collapsing”, BBC reported.
In the matter of the growing calls about interim government, President Ghani said, “the future will be determined by the people of Afghanistan, not by somebody sitting behind the desk, dreaming”.
According to Ghani had decisions and sacrifices lie ahead in a year where peace be won or lost.
“From our side, we have a sense of urgency, we’re willing to make the hard decisions, and there are going to be hard decisions required. Forty years of violence in this country is enough,” BBC quoted Ghani.
As Trump’s team saw the Taliban as worthier partners than the government, President Ghani with the new administration feels he is being listened to but is “ready to pay a price”  because the US won’t unnecessarily stay for a long time in Afghanistan. (Khaama Press)