NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg at a press conference on Thursday called on Afghan leaders to resolve their differences and work for peace in the country.

“We are of course concerned about the political turmoil we see in Afghanistan today, I was in Kabul a couple of weeks ago when the deal was signed and we had announcement of the deal between Taliban and the United States and of course to make sure that deal is implemented, we need united Afghan government that can be part of a political negotiating process,” said Stoltenberg, as a  political impasse remains in Afghanistan in the aftermath of the presidential elections.

“We urge all political forces in Afghanistan to find a solution, an inclusive solution and to make sure that we are able, they are able--to implement the agreement with the Taliban,” said the NATO chief.

Asked about NATO's "leaving" Afghanistan, he said: “This is not about leaving, this is about reducing our presence and the plan is to go from roughly 16,000 to around 12,000 [troops] within a 135 days and we are implementing that plan in line with the US reduction, NATO allies are also reducing their forces.”

Meanwhile, The US Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Alice Wells in a tweet said on Wednesday that the Afghan leaders must prioritize and protect the unity of the nation, saying that “parallel Afghan governments are not the answer, and will be harmful to the Afghan people.”

This comes as the Taliban are insisting that the US facilitate the release of their prisoners jailed by the Afghan government.

Also on Wednesday, the US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation, Zalmay Khalilzad that said the US would like to see the prisoner release begin as soon as possible, in line with the US-Taliban peace agreement.

The US-Taliban deal signed in Qatar on Feb. 29 calls for the release of up to 5,000 Taliban prisoners to open the way for intra-Afghan negotiations. The deadline for the release was March 10. President Ghani has agreed to release 1,500 prisoners, gradually, ahead of the intra-Afghan negotiations.