Afghans want peace, but Taliban are unresponsive: Abdullah

AVA- Dr. Abdullah made these comments at a conference at the Sciences Po in France on Tuesday. He briefed the French scholars on developments and challenges of Afghanistan.
A statement quoted Abdullah as saying that Afghanistan witnessed unprecedented changes over the last four decades. “After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, new changes took place with the beginning of the 21st century, this country faced new movements such as the Taliban and extremist groups such as Al-Qaida,” he said.
He added: “After the terrorist attack on the US in September 11, 2001, the situation in Afghanistan and the region fundamentally changed. Afghanistan opened a new page after the fall of Taliban regime and experienced positive changes with approval of the Constitution and international assistance of which France was a part.”
He said economic development, freedom of expression, education and women rights as examples of the positive changes in Afghanistan. “The Afghan people were committed to democracy. Pointing to the peace process in Afghanistan, the CEO said the government and people supported peace and efforts have been accelerated in this regard but the Taliban were yet to respond positively,” he asserted.
Abdullah laid emphasis over continued fight against extremism and said that terrorism and extremism were major challenges for Afghanistan and the international community. Abdullah said that dealing with the mentioned challenges required long term cooperation between Afghanistan and the international community.