The UN Secretary General António Guterres on Thursday pushed for a dialogue between the Afghan Government and the Taliban, which he said is essential to bring peace in the country.
“We know that the way for peace is difficult, but I’m a strong believer that, also in Afghanistan, dialogue is necessary, in this case dialogue between the government and the Taliban,” Guterres told reporters in a press conference held at the UN headquarters in New York.
The UN Secretary General hoped that the circumstances will allow for the dialogue to take place with productive results.
“I know it is complex. I know it’s difficult, but it’s also the only way possible to be able to more effectively combat terrorist organisations that operate in the country,” he said.
“On the other hand, we are not organising the elections, and we do not have, presence of peacekeeping forces in Afghanistan, but we’ll do everything that we can in order to support a process to make it successful. But we know that our capacity in that regard is obviously limited. We don’t have, as I said, a security presence in Afghanistan,” Guterres said.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani is scheduled to address the 7rd session of the UN General Assembly on September 26, a day after Guterres presents his report to the world body and kicks off the general debate. US President Donald Trump is scheduled to address the General assembly on September 25.
