Official: Afghanistan’s government offers to share power with the Taliban

Kabul, Afghanistan – A top government source told Al Jazeera that the Afghan government has presented a power-sharing deal to the Taliban in exchange for a halt to the country’s increasing violence.

On Thursday, the armed group stormed Ghazni, the tenth provincial capital to be seized in a week, according to Afghan local media.

The offer was made to the Taliban indirectly, according to Al Jazeera, through Qatar, which hosts the Taliban’s political office and ongoing Afghan peace talks.

The presidential palace in Kabul, on the other hand, has not confirmed the news, claiming that its agenda has not changed while the peace talks are taking place in Qatar’s capital, Doha.

In Doha, Abdullah Abdullah, head of Afghanistan’s High Council for National Reconciliation, is meeting with officials from the US, China, Russia, and the country’s neighboring neighbors.

Abdullah stated on Thursday that the government’s reconciliation plan had been communicated with the Qatari government, but he did not mention the Taliban’s alleged offer.

At a meeting with foreign diplomats on Thursday, Abdullah stated, “We have offered our scheme to the host nation, and you will also be furnished with one.”

The contradicting reports came as the Taliban claimed Ghazni, about 150 kilometers south of Kabul, as its tenth provincial capital.

On Thursday, a video showing the regional governor, Daoud Laghmani, escaping was widely disseminated online. When he arrived in Maidan Wardak province, which borders Kabul, he was apprehended.

The Taliban announced last month that it will unveil its peace plan in August, but the armed group has failed to do so.

Instead, the organization has taken control of ten provinces in the country’s south, west, and north, including Kunduz, which it previously seized in 2015 and 2016.

“The Taliban’s remarks in Doha are diametrically opposed to their actions in Badakhshan, Ghazni, Helmand, and Kandahar… Attempts to monopolize power by violence, terror, or war can only result in international isolation, according to Ross Wilson, the US chargé d’affaires in Afghanistan.