President Ashraf Ghani held talks in two separate phone calls with the senior US officials to review the steps necessary to implement the recent decision to release the Taliban detainees.
President’s spokesman, Sediq Sediqi said, “In two separate phone calls, President Ghani spoke to Secretary Mike Pompeo and National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien on November 18 to review the steps necessary to implement President Ghani’s recent decision to release the three high-level Taliban/Haqqani detainees.”
Sediqi noted that the U.S. officials reiterated their support for President Ghani’s decision and committed to working closely together to respond to any possible Taliban violence in the event the group doesn’t respond in good faith.
“Both sides agreed that a ceasefire and/or a reduction in violence was a necessary pre-condition for kick-starting the intra-Afghan negotiations to reach a political settlement,” he said, adding that “Both the Secretary and Ambassador O’Brien praised the performance of the Afghan security forces including their ongoing efforts in eliminating ISIS-K’s safe havens in Nangharar, and reaffirmed continued American support to these forces so that Afghanistan can never again be used as a platform for international terrorism.”
President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani last week announced that the government is intending to release the three senior Haqqani network leaders in exchange for the release of the two American University lecturers.
