Afghan President Ashraf Ghani offered recognition of the Taliban as a legitimate political group on Wednesday as part of a proposed political process that he said could lead to talks aimed at ending 17 years of war.
“We are making this offer without preconditions in order to lead to a peace agreement,” Ghani said in opening remarks to the second conference attended by officials from around 25 countries involved in the so-called Kabul Process.
“The Taliban are expected to give input to the peace-making process, the goal of which is to draw the Taliban, as an organisation, to peace talks,” he said, adding that he would not “pre-judge” any group seeking peace.
Reuters said his comments represented a change in tone for Ghani, who has regularly called the Taliban “terrorists” and “rebels” although he has also offered to talk with parts of the movement that accepted peace.
"A ceasefire should be held, the Taliban should be recognised as a political party and trust-building process should be initiated," said Ghani, AFP reported.
"Now the decision is in your hands, accept peace... and let's bring stability to this country," he added.
In return for Ghani’s offer, the Taliban would have to recognise the Afghan government and respect the rule of law, including the rights of women, one of the priorities for Afghanistan’s international partners.
Taliban officials have acknowledged that they have faced pressure from friendly countries to accept talks and said their recent offers to talk to the United States reflected concern that they could be seen to be standing in the way of peace.
The United States last year stepped up its military assistance to Afghanistan, notably through a sharp increase in air strikes, with the aim of breaking a stalemate with the insurgents and forcing them to the negotiating table.
While the US military says the strategy has hit the Taliban hard, they still control or contest much of the country and continue to inflict severe casualties on Afghan forces.
They also claimed responsibility for two major attacks in Kabul last month that killed or wounded hundreds of civilians.
