By RIA Novosti,
Kabul : Leaders of the influential oppositional Islamic Party have been in Kabul for peace talks with Afghanistan’s government, national media said on Monday.
Opposition negotiators brought with them to the Afghan capital a plan for peace in the war-ravaged state, which would start with the withdrawal of foreign troops from this July, a party spokesman said.
Moreover, the Islamic Party plans to hold talks with the radical Islamic Taliban group, which controls the country’s east. The movement was toppled in a 2001 U.S.-led campaign, but mounted a resurgence of late, with regular attacks on police and troops.
The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) currently has some 89,000 troops in Afghanistan, with most of them deployed in the country’s volatile south and east.
However, a Taliban spokesman has claimed that the movement has decided to refrain from attacks on schools and hospitals, and has also offered to assist with the construction of new such establishments.
U.S. President Barack Obama has pledged to send an additional 30,000 soldiers to the war-ravaged country in the first part of 2010 to defeat the Taliban and establish law and order. Other NATO members have said they will send 7,000 additional troops to Afghanistan.