Afghanistan: Taliban offer three-month ceasefire against 7,000 freed prisoners
Crowd waving the Taliban flag in Chaman, on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
AFP - ASGHAR ACHAKZAI
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3 min
The Taliban have offered a three-month ceasefire in exchange for the release of 7,000 of their prisoners by the Afghan authorities, a member of the government team negotiating with the rebels said Thursday (July 15th).
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A three-month ceasefire against 7,000 prisoners from their ranks.
"
It's a huge requirement
," Nader Nadery, a government team negotiator, told reporters.
He added that they are also asking that the names of the leaders of the movement be removed from a
UN "
blacklist
".
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Without commenting on the follow-up given to this offer from the Taliban, he stressed that the previous release of 5,000 of them last year, which was the condition set for the opening of inter-Afghan talks, had already been "
a a difficult requirement
”to fulfill and that subsequently“
the violence had not ceased and, on the contrary, had increased
”.
Taliban offensive
Asked by AFP about this offer, the Taliban did not immediately respond.
The Taliban have seized large rural portions of Afghan territory over the past two months, thanks to an offensive launched at the same time as the final withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan, which began in early May and is expected to be completed by the end. August.
They notably made themselves masters of key border posts
with Iran
, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and, since Wednesday,
Pakistan
, access route to the ocean for Afghanistan, a landlocked country.
Deprived of crucial American support, the Afghan forces offered little resistance and essentially controlled only the provincial capitals and the main roads.
Hundreds of people scattered on the Pakistani border
For example, Pakistani border guards used tear gas on Thursday (July 15th) to disperse hundreds of people who were trying to force their way through the border post at the Chaman border post on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
This post had been controlled since the day before on the Afghan side by the Taliban, local officials said.
Talks between the Afghan government and the rebels have
stalled
since they began in September in Qatar's capital Doha.
(
With
AFP)
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