Afghan president offers Taliban local office, but group wants Doha instead
Militants accuse Ashraf Ghani of trying to harm ongoing peace negotiations
Kabul/Nangarhar — Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Sunday offered the Taliban the possibility of opening an office in Afghanistan but the proposal was swiftly spurned by the group that is determined to keep his government out of accelerating peace talks. Ghani has expressed alarm at the Taliban shutting his administration out of negotiations with the US as well as recent Moscow talks with Afghan opposition politicians, and repeated earlier offers to give the group a secure official address to aid any future diplomacy between the two sides. “If the Taliban want an office, I will give it to them in Kabul, Nangarhar or Kandahar by tomorrow,” Ghani said. “We will bring a lasting and honourable peace to the country,” he said. Nangarhar is a stronghold of the Taliban, the hardline Islamist movement that now controls or contests districts across nearly half the country, more than 17 years since they were toppled from power. Taliban officials in Moscow last week stressed the importance of a...
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