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Taliban: Calls for Halting War Before Afghan Peace Talks 'Illogical'

Ayaz Gul

   ISLAMABAD - Afghanistan's Taliban has dismissed as "illogical"
   escalating domestic and foreign calls for the insurgent group to cease
   hostilities before the commencement of intra-Afghan peace negotiations.

   The long-delayed dialogue is stipulated in a landmark deal the United
   States and the Taliban sealed in February aimed at ending nearly two
   decades of war in Afghanistan, America's longest. The peace talks are
   tied, however, to a successful conclusion of an ongoing controversial
   prisoner swap between the Afghan government and the insurgents.

   A spokesman for the Islamist Taliban insisted Sunday that
   implementation of the agreement and start of intra-Afghan negotiations
   are necessary to de-escalate and end the war.

   "A demand for us to stop the fighting and then start the negotiations
   is illogical. War is raging precisely because we have yet to find an
   alternative," Zabihullah Mujahid said in a media release.

   "The prisoner exchange process must be completed and intra-Afghan talks
   must begin immediately. This is the real and logical path toward
   resolving the problem," Mujahid stressed.

   Direct peace negotiations between Afghan parties to the war were
   originally scheduled to commence in March but were pushed back due to
   disagreements over the prisoner swap.

   The Afghan government says it has so far released just over 4,000
   Taliban prisoners out of the promised 5,000. In exchange, the insurgent
   group says it has freed about 770 out of the promised 1,000 Afghan
   security personnel, although Afghan officials dispute those figures and
   say about half of the freed men are civilians.

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