Afghan political leaders who attended a meeting of the leadership committee of the High Council of National Reconciliation (HCNR) at the Presidential Palace on Wednesday said that all political leaders agreed to defend the political system of the country.

They said there is a need for practical steps to be taken toward creating a national consensus on the national issues and only having meetings will not help ensure the security and safety of the country.

However, the absence of former president Hamid Karzai, Mohammad Karim Khalili, Amrullah Saleh, Mohammad Hanif Atmar and Rahmatullah Nabil in the meeting has raised questions.

Abdullah Abdullah, chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation (HCNR), at the meeting, said that “the survival of Afghanistan is in danger.”

“The truth is, today the survival, security and unity of Afghanistan is in danger,” Abdullah said. “There is no better way than peace.”

“Of course, these meetings bring hope among the people, but these meetings shouldn’t be just symbolic,” said Fareeda Momand, a member of the HCNR.

The sixth leadership committee meeting of the HCNR was held at the Presidential Palace and was attended by President Ashraf Ghani, HCNR members and other government officials.

15 members spoke at the meeting. President Ghani left the meeting early because he was scheduled to meet a foreign guest.

“Mr. Karzai was very busy yesterday, he had meetings with members of parliament including Mr. Khalili. Any meeting that takes place should yield a result as expected by the people,” said Shahzada Massoud, adviser to Karzai.

Although a six-member delegation comprised of former president Hamid Karzai and HCNR chief Abdullah was expected to travel to Doha following the Ghani-led trip to the US, sources have said that no discussion was held about the trip in the meeting on Wednesday.

In April, US President Joe Biden announced that the US troops would leave Afghanistan by September 11.

This comes as Germany’s last troops left Afghanistan on Tuesday after nearly 20 years of deployment in the country, said the German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer. 

The German defense minister said in a tweet that the last Bundeswehr soldiers “left Afghanistan safely” on Tuesday evening.  

NATO agreed in April to withdraw at least 7,000 of its troops from Afghanistan. 

At the time, Germany had around 1,100 troops in Afghanistan.