Mohammad Omar Daudzai has said that the Afghan government was well aware of all the developments in the US-Taliban talks in Doha, saying that US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad had regularly briefed President Ashraf Ghani by phone calls on a daily basis.
“Mr. Khalilzad contacted the President of Afghanistan every day to brief him about the Qatar talks,” President Ghani’s Special Envoy and Head of the High Peace Council’s Secretariat Omar Daudzai said. “What they discussed is classified but the government of Afghanistan was aware of the process.”
Daudzai added that the upcoming consultative Grand Assembly is not the one which has been mentioned in the Afghan Constitution, but it’s rather consultative, he clarified.
“We have planned that the upcoming Jirga will be convened for four days and it will be divided into 50 working groups,” Daudzai explained.
Recently, the High Peace Council announced April 29 as a new date for consultative Jirga.
Regarding Taliban’s participation in the Jirga, Daudzai clarified that the group can also attend the Jirga, saying nobody will be deprived of sending their delegates to the Jirga.
“We will welcome it if anyone attends the Jirga as representative of the Taliban. We are discussing on whether the Taliban should also be invited or not”, he added.
Regarding the upcoming peace talks along the lines of Moscow Talks in Doha, Daudzai said that the Afghan government has not decided on its presence in the meeting yet. He said “The upcoming Qatar meeting is hosted by an academic institution, and so far we have not decided to attend the event. In my view, the meeting should be held after the peace Jirga”
