Qatar Emir to President Ghani: I told Taliban that Afghanistan has Legitimate, Elected Gov’t

Qatar Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani in a telephone conversation on Tuesday evening with President Ashraf Ghani said he is ready for any cooperation in the peace process, adding that he told the Taliban that Afghanistan is not the country of 20 years ago and they should accept the fact.

Qatar Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani in a telephone conversation on Tuesday evening with President Ashraf Ghani said he is ready for any cooperation in the peace process, adding that he told the Taliban that Afghanistan is not the country of 20 years ago and they should accept the fact.

According to a statement released by Arg, during the conversation, Qatari Emir promised to cooperate in facilitating the Afghan peace process.

“During a meeting with the Taliban, I reminded them that today’s Afghanistan is not a country of two decades ago, but a series of new realities have been formed in Afghanistan and the country has changed,” said Qatari Emir. “the new realities of Afghanistan are that the country has a legitimate and elected government and the Taliban must accept this that the Afghan government represents its people and raise their serious and legitimate demands. Naturally, the Taliban also have demands which will be discussed during negotiations,” he added.

President Ghani thanked Qatar’s Emir and said he will continue his talks with him on the peace process.
Qatar hosted the Taliban’s political office during the past years and the US-Taliban peace deal was signed in Doha, the capital of Qatar.