By Shadi Khan Saif
KABUL, Afghanistan (AA) - Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said on Wednesday his government is ready to reintegrate the Taliban only if they are ready to shun violence rather than seeking to overthrow the system and the society.
Ghani was speaking at a panel discussion on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
“Are the Taliban sufficiently ready to engage? All wars must end politically and we have to find a political end to this war. The good news is that the ranking Taliban fighters are sick of fighting. The people sitting in Doha [insurgents' Qatar office] are getting their fourth or fifth wives and are enjoying themselves. They have become investors,” Ghani said in remarks televised live by the state broadcaster RTA.
He said the Afghan society has seen 40 years of violence. “They have to see the end of violence, now it depends very much on the Taliban to end the violence,” Ghani added.
This comes as the Taliban has, after consultations in Pakistan, proposed a temporary cease-fire to pave the way for the signing of deal with the U.S., a move disregarded by Ghani-led Afghan government as “ambiguous” as it does not clearly call for a comprehensive cease-fire.
A source privy with the developments has told Anadolu Agency the Taliban are reluctant to give-up their main leverage -- violence -- in these talks and they are only inclined towards “reduction in violence” with little or no explanation of what would this amount to.
The Afghan government, however, stands firm on demand for an all-out ceasefire ahead of the resumption of formal peace talks.