societal friendship
DNA
KABUL
Acting Foreign Minister of Afghanistan Mohammad Haneef Atmar said that 12 countries want to host intra-Afghan talks, including regional countries.
In the press conference on Thursday, Atmar added that Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, China, Russia, Turkey, Iran, Qatar, Indonesia and Japan have shown interest in hosting intra-Afghan talks.
Atmar also said that the Afghan government has released 4,400 Taliban prisoners so far although the Taliban wants the release of 5,000.
He said that 600 more prisoners have not been released because of serious problems but Taliban prisoners will be released soon. He further added that the government has asked the Taliban to handover a new list for 600 more prisoners.
The Taliban must show goodwill for the beginning of the intra-Afghan talks.
On the other hand, the Taliban released 30 Afghan government prisoners on Wednesday in Helmand. The Afghan government also released 32 Taliban prisoners from Bagram, seven from Helmand and one from northern Balkh province. So far, the Taliban has released 845 Afghan government prisoners.
Recently, the Afghan government has blamed the Taliban for not implementing their commitments, saying the movements by the group should be scrutinized after the peace deal.
The prisoner exchange between the Afghan government and the Taliban has delayed the intra-Afghan negotiations.
The process should have happened 10 days after the peace deal, according to the US and Taliban agreement. =DNA
