Hizb-e-Islami leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar has said that eight points on which he reached an agreement with President Ashraf Ghani and former president Hamid Karzai have not been implemented, claiming that the president could not gather his team’s support on the agreed points.
Ghani, Karzai and Hekmatyar discussed the following issues last week: The participation at the Istanbul conference with a unified plan, the establishment of a short-term transitional government, holding elections, the establishment of a decision-making council, the release of Taliban and Hizb-e-Islami prisoners, permanent ceasefire and convening the constitutional Loya Jirga (a grand council) to amend the Constitution.
The meeting took place earlier this month and was facilitated by former president Karzai.
“Regretfully, the president was faced with problems within his government team and could not get everyone’s agreement – neither on the peace plan nor on the Supreme Council and its formation and powers,” Hekmatyar added.
He said that the president had vowed to share the agreed points with his colleagues and would implement them within eight days after the meeting, but it has not happened yet.
Hekmatyar said that an inclusive plan for peace will be formed if the agreements are implemented. He suggested that this plan should be shared with the Taliban.
“We leave the selection of the three options to the government. Accept the agreements of the trilateral meeting – select one of the two new options – otherwise, we will have no choice but to make our independent decision on peace and on the overarching situation,” Hekmatyar continued.
He said that the government is losing its ground and warned that if his agreements are not implemented by the administration, he would make decisions unilaterally.
Some politicians, however, said that the persistence of such differences and the formation of councils that are parallel to already existing entities in the government will not be in Afghanistan’s favor.
“Let’s not spend the budget, not waste the time and not connect with another invalid period,” the deputy speaker of the Senate, Mohammad Alam Ezedyar, said.
