Taliban eager to negotiate, peace meeting attendees say

Kabul, Feb 1 : The Taliban are interested in negotiating and renouncing violence after 2014, Afghan politicians attending the Dubai Peace Meeting said.

Speaking to TOLOnews, the National Front spokesman Sayed Fazel Sancharaki said that all the parties attending the meeting wanted to stop the bloodshed and find a peaceful resolution to the Afghan conflict through negotiation.

"All the parties emphasised to have negotiations and were interested in stopping the bloodshed after this," he said.

The attendees also stressed that Taliban were interested in renouncing violence and ending the conflict after more than a decade of combat.

"The Taliban have agreed that war is not a solution for Afghanistan and there should a political resolution," Afghan Analyst Wahid Muzhda said.

The two-day gathering was organised by the international group Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs in order to boost political resolutions for Afghanistan.

Another meeting is expected to be organised by the United Nations in Turkmenistan's Ishqabad city in the near future to bring the interested parties together again.

The Taliban said in a statement that they had not sent any representatives to Dubai for the conference.

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SA/EN