File: Taliban militants

The Taliban’s refusal to participate in a high-level conference on the Afghan peace process in Turkey had proved that it is not ready for a political settlement.

The General Director of the Afghan presidential administrative office said on Wednesday.

Fazel Fazly wrote in a series of tweets that whenever the “stage of a firm decision was getting closer to stop the war and Afghan killing, Taliban retreats’’.

He asked the Afghan people to unite under the leadership of President Ashraf Ghani and stand against those who think of themselves as the lords.

The high-level peace conference in Istanbul was scheduled to begin this weekend, but was postponed until after Ramadan, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said late on Tuesday, that Ramadan ends on May 12, 2021.

The conference originally set to run through May 4 was to be co-hosted by Turkey, Qatar and the United Nations.

In an interview with broadcaster HaberTurk, Cavusoglu said there was a lack of clarity about participation in the conference.

However, he did not mention the Taliban.

The Taliban said earlier it would not participate in any conference on Afghanistan until all foreign forces withdraw from the country.

Their refusal was a reaction to the recent U.S. decision to withdraw troops by Sept. 11.

Under the administration of former president Donald Trump, the White House had agreed with the Taliban to withdraw by May 1.

The meeting in Istanbul was to give a fresh impetus to intra-Afghan peace negotiations and bring together parties to the decade’s long conflict in order to achieve a lasting political settlement.

Experts predict a devastating civil war if the warring sides fail to reach a political agreement before the complete withdrawal of international forces. (dpa/NAN)