By Serife Cetin
BRUSSELS (AA) – NATO and the European Union on Thursday welcomed a ceasefire announcement by the Afghan government with the Taliban.
“I welcome the announcement of a ceasefire made by President [Ashraf] Ghani and the Government of National Unity. This is a positive step forward on the path to peace,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said at a press conference in Brussels ahead of a NATO Defense Ministers meeting.
“The announcement of the ceasefire shows the seriousness of President Ghani and the Afghan government when it comes to their efforts to find a peaceful, negotiated solution to the conflict in Afghanistan, ” Stoltenberg said, calling on the Taliban to join the ceasefire.
“The Taliban will not win on the battlefield. The only way for them to achieve a solution is to sit down at the negotiating table,” he said.
“I call on the Taliban to join the ceasefire and to lay down their arms and to engage in a constructive dialogue to find a peaceful, negotiated solution. ”
In a statement, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini also expressed support for the Afghan-led ceasefire and said the Taliban should also embrace it.
The Afghan government on Thursday announced a unilateral ceasefire with the Taliban starting from the 27th of Ramadan (June 12) until the fifth day of Eid ul-Fitr, the Muslim holy festival due to fall next week.
In a televised announcement, Ghani said the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) would only stop offensive maneuvers against armed Taliban and would continue to target Daesh and other foreign-backed terrorist organizations and their affiliates.
The Taliban are yet to respond to this cease-fire announcement.
Since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, many provincial heads of the pro-government National Council of Ulama and other pro-government religious figures have been assassinated in Afghanistan.
