Afghan President Muhammad Ashraf Ghani welcomed the stay of NATO forces in his country, and stressed at the same time that there was a serious opportunity to reach peace with the Taliban, while the movement criticized what it called the contradictions of officials in the Kabul government.

The Afghan president said on Wednesday that there is a serious opportunity more than ever to reach peace with the Taliban.

Ghani added - during his meeting with Afghan parliamentarians at the presidential palace in Kabul - that the ground had been laid for serious peace talks with the Taliban.

He pointed out that the recent NATO meeting on his decision not to withdraw from Afghanistan poured in the interest of peace in the country.

And NATO announced a week ago that it had "not made a final decision" about the future of the mission in Afghanistan, and its Secretary-General, Jens Stoltenberg, acknowledged that the alliance faced "several dilemmas" regarding its mission.

German decision

On Wednesday, the German government agreed to extend its military presence in Afghanistan for another 10 months, as part of a mission to deploy the second largest battalion after the United States.

The decision, which has yet to be approved in the House of Representatives, will allow the current mission - scheduled to end at the end of March - to be extended to January 31, 2022.

Germany has nearly 1100 troops in northern Afghanistan, as part of the NATO mission known as "resolute support", which includes 9600 personnel.

The administration of US President Joe Biden is reviewing the issue of maintaining the May 1 deadline to withdraw the remaining 2,500 American soldiers, or "risking a bloody response from the insurgents if they remain."

Former US President Donald Trump had reduced the number of American soldiers in Afghanistan in his last days, keeping 2,500,000 troops, and this is the lowest number of strength since the start of the Afghan conflict in 2001.

Allies await Biden’s decision on the issue of ending the US intervention in Afghanistan, but they say they are ready to stay in the event that the United States also does.

Taliban position

As for the political spokesman for the Taliban, Muhammad Naeem, he rejected the Afghan government's accusations that the movement did not adhere to the Doha Agreement.

In an intervention with Al-Jazeera, Naim denounced what he described as the contradictory statements of government officials that welcomed the peace agreement, while at the same time heading towards escalation against the movement.

These statements and accusations come just a day after the bombing in Logar state, east of the country, which killed 9 security guards.

Security sources said that the Taliban militants launched an attack on a security guard outpost in the "Hisarik" area of ​​the Lugar, killing 9 of them.