New Afghan president Ashraf Ghani urges Taliban to join peace efforts
Ashraf Ghani, a one-time US-based academic, was sworn in as the new president of Afghanistan yesterday and used his inaugural speech to call for Taliban insurgents to join peace talks after 13 years of war.
Ashraf Ghani, a one-time US-based academic, was sworn in as the new president of Afghanistan yesterday and used his inaugural speech to call for Taliban insurgents to join peace talks after 13 years of war.
The swearing-in marked the country's first democratic transfer of power and opened a new era after the rule of Hamid Karzai, president since the Taliban regime was ousted in 2001.
The June presidential election was engulfed in disputes over fraud, but international donors welcomed the inauguration as a key legacy of the costly military and civilian intervention in Afghanistan.
Nato's US-led combat mission will end in three months but the Taliban still poses a serious threat to national stability, having launched several new offensives in recent months.
"We ask opponents of the government, specially the Taliban and Hizb-e-Islami [another militant group], to enter political talks," Ghani said. "Any problems that they have, they should tell us, we will find a solution.
"We ask every villager to call for peace. We ask Muslim scholars to advise the Taliban, and if they don't listen to their advice, they should cut off any relations."
