No deal excluding Afghan govt to be enforced: Ghani

KABUL (Pajhwok): President Ashraf Ghani has made clear Afghan politicians attending the Moscow conference do not have executive power and are not officially representing the country.

Absent a national consensus, no peace deal between the Taliban and the US would be implemented, the president said in an interview aired by an Afghan TV channel on Tuesday.

The involvement of his administration as the decision-maker was a must, said the president, whose government has so far been excluded from talks between Taliban and the US.

As Afghan opposition politicians, including Hamid Karzai, met Taliban representatives in Moscow, the president said: “At the end of any peace deal, the decision-maker will be the government of Afghanistan.”

Speaking to TOLO News, Ghani hailed the Taliban statement regarding their willingness to cut ties with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State as a positive development.

Ghani promised the presidential election would be held on schedule — July 20 this year. “Elections will be held one hundred percent. So be prepared to move towards the elections.”

About the Moscow talks, Ghani said: “Let hundreds of such meetings be held, but these would only be on paper unless there is an agreement by the Afghan government and Afghanistan’s legal institutions.”

He said US Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad consulted his government on meetings with the Taliban and that the Afghan government was fully aware of what was happening.

“All talks are shared with us. All talks are set with us. The peace talks will move step by step with our consultations and according to our plan,” insisted Ghani.

The president scotched speculation about the formation of an interim government.“You can ask Khalilzad about this; he swore a hundred times that no one talked about such a thing.”

Ghani concluded he was not concerned about talks between Taliban and the US but added there was need for coordination on the peace process.

sa/mud