President Ashraf Ghani on Thursday, while speaking at a ceremony on National Flag Day at the Presidential Palace, reiterated that “there is no military solution to the country’s crisis.”
Addressing the Taliban, President Ghani said: "You will not surrender by force, we will not surrender either, so the solution is to come together.”
"We will not submit to the devastating plans that foreigners and networks have to turn the country into a battlefield,” he further said, adding: “"Are you committed to the national interests of Afghanistan, or to the networks? Do you want to sow the seeds of hypocrisy and destroy national settlements and foundations?"
He stated: “Our voice is the voice of peace, and all Afghans agree on peace, a dignified and lasting peace in which the future of all is secure."
He warned that if the Taliban continue the war, then the security forces will respond.
Ghani said that if Afghanistan becomes insecure than there will be no stability in the region.
He also mentioned that scholars from the Islamic world, especially at their recent meeting in Saudi Arabia--which was attended by Pakistani religious scholars--stressed that the war in Afghanistan "has no Islamic legitimacy.”
He assured the nation that the situation in the country will change soon with the implementation of his security plan.
On Wednesday, addressing the Joint Coordination and Monitoring Board (JCMB) in a meeting at the Presidential Palace, Deborah Lyons, the UN secretary general's special representative for Afghanistan, said that if there is no progress in the peace talks the world will not work with the Taliban.
"If there is no movement at the negotiating table, and instead human rights abuses and--worse still--atrocities occur in districts they control, the Taliban will not be seen as a viable partner for the international community," said Lyons.
Lyons said that the meeting takes place in extraordinary circumstances, with work to preserve the gains never more urgent or challenging.
"With the territory they have taken the Taliban have inherited responsibilities. The world is watching closely how they are acting, especially towards civilian populations, women, and minorities. The Taliban have gained a certain legitimacy in recent years through their negotiations in Doha, but this legitimacy is premised on their commitment to a political negotiation with the Government of Afghanistan, a commitment which their battle-focused strategy casts into doubt," said Lyons.
"No major donor will finance the repression of women, let me say that again, no major donor will finance the repression of women, nor any major donor will finance the discrimination of minorities, the denying of education to girls, or the decrees of an authoritarian government," said Lyons, adding: "They cannot do so, not only because these are against the norms of the United Nations and international community, but because a society built on these restrictions cannot and will not function for its citizens."
The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday told reporters in India that Afghanistan would become a “pariah state” if the government commits atrocities against its own population.
"An Afghanistan that does not respect the rights of its people, an Afghanistan that commits atrocities against its own people would become a pariah state," Blinken said.
He said that the violence carried out by the Taliban against the Afghan people was deeply troubling and not a good sign for the future of the country.
"Yes, certainly what we were seeing on the ground in the last week is the Taliban making advances on district centers, challenging some provincial capitals,” Blinken said, adding: “We have also seen these reports of atrocities committed by the Taliban in areas that it has taken over; that are deeply, deeply troubling and certainly do not speak well of the Taliban's intentions for the country as a whole."
Blinken, who was in New Delhi for talks with Indian leaders, said the only path to peace in Afghanistan was through negotiations, and that all parties must take them seriously.