Hundreds of opposition fighters and their families were evacuated on Thursday from the town of Harasta in Eastern Ghouta (Anadolu)

by Al Jazeera

At least 37 people, mostly women and children, have been killed and 80 others injured after regime forces bombed an underground shelter in Eastern Ghouta, according to rescuers and activists on the ground.

Sources on the ground and rescuers from the Syrian Civil Defence, a volunteer rescue group also known as the White Helmets, said on Friday that the victims were burned to death after air strikes carrying napalm gas hit the shelter in the town of Arbeen.

“An airstrike targeted one of the underground cellars in Arbeen last night where between 117 to 125 people, mostly women and children, were hiding,” Izzet Muslimani, an activist in Eastern Ghouta, told Al Jazeera.

“Those who were injured are still being treated for first and second degree burns. With the lack of emergency services, we are expecting the death toll to rise,” added Muslimani.

Zaher Hassoun, another activist in the rebel enclave, confirmed reports that the Syrian government had hit the shelter with napalm gas, a flammable liquid that is used in warfare as it sticks to skin and causes severe burns.

Earlier this month, the Syrian Civil Defence said the Syrian government hit Arbeen with chlorine gas, phosphorous and napalm. The news followed reports of several alleged chemical attacks in a matter of days.

Eastern Ghouta has been under control of armed opposition groups since 2013 – two years into a popular uprising in Syria calling for the removal of President Bashar al-Assad.

More than 1,500 civilians have died in the enclave, east of the capital, Damascus, since the regime forces backed by the Russian warplanes launched a fierce assault on February 18.

Evacuation ongoing
The attack reportedly came just hours before a ceasefire went into effect after midnight which saw hundreds of opposition fighters and their families evacuated on Thursday from the town of Harasta in the eastern part of Eastern Ghouta, according to Syrian state media.

Sana, the official Syrian news agency, said at least six buses carrying the evacuees were headed to Idlib province in Syria’s north, which is an area under opposition control.

The evacuation comes as part of a deal brokered on Wednesday by the Syrian government’s principal ally, Russia, between fighters in Harasta and a Syrian government delegation.

The operation was facilitated by a United Nations delegation as well as the Syrian Red Crescent.

Until recently, Eastern Ghouta was one of the last remaining rebel strongholds. In a renewed offensive by the government since February 18, the opposition lost large parts of it, with the Syrian army claiming it has now recaptured 80 percent of the suburb.

Hundreds have been arrested since Abdulla Yameen declared an emergency [Mohamed Sharuhaan/ Al Jazeera]

by Al Jazeera

The Maldives has lifted a 45-day state of emergency imposed by President Abdulla Yameen to annul a Supreme Court ruling that had overturned criminal convictions against nine opposition leaders.

In a statement on Thursday, the president’s office said Yameen lifted the emergency “in an effort to promote normalcy” despite there still existing a “diminished threat to national security”.

Under the emergency, security forces arrested former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, Yameen’s half-brother, as well as two Supreme Court judges and a top judicial administrator on charges of trying to topple the government.

All four were charged with terrorism on Wednesday.

A court in the capital, Male, ordered they be held until the end of their trials.

If convicted of terrorism, they could be jailed for up to 15 years. The two judges and their aide have also been charged with receiving bribes to help overthrow the government.

Mohamed Nasheed, the Indian Ocean archipelago’s exiled former president, said Yameen lifted the emergency because “he now has no need for it”.

Nasheed was one of the nine whose terrorism conviction the Supreme Court had quashed.

In a Twitter post, he said Yameen has “overrun the judiciary and legislature, arrested hundreds unlawfully and introduced a “new normal” in the Maldives – full dictatorship”.

Those arrested included opposition parliamentarians, journalists and a former police chief.

Some 141 were arrested on Friday alone when thousands of opposition supporters defied the emergency and staged a protest in the Maldives’ congested capital. Most have since been released.

The opposition accuse Yameen, who assumed power in 2013 following a disputed election, of abuses of power and siphoning millions of dollars from state coffers, allegations he has denied.

During his tenure, nearly all opposition leaders have been jailed or forced into exile. That includes the leaders of the coalition that brought him to power, two of his former vice presidents, as well as a former defence minister.

Crackdown continues
Meanwhile, following the arrest of Chief Justice Abdulla Saeed and Judge Ali Hameed on February 5, the remaining three judges on the Supreme Court reversed their earlier ruling ordering the release of dissidents.

They also suspended a section of the verdict that reinstated 12 parliamentarians who were removed for defecting to the opposition.

The 85-member parliament, where the ruling party holds a majority without the 12 defectors, then pushed through a law that strips judges of their seats if they are convicted of a criminal offence.

Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, the minority leader, was arrested under the emergency on Saturday and has been remanded for nine days.

Nasheed, the opposition leader, had urged neighbouring India to send an envoy backed by its military to help free Gayoom and the judges. India did not comment on the request, but said it was “deeply dismayed” by Yameen’s extension of the initial 15-day emergency in late February.

The emergency also drew criticism from the United States, and the European Union.

China, whose influence has been growing in the Maldives, said the crisis in the island nation was an “internal affair” and called on the international community to “respect the Maldives’ sovreignty and territorial integrity”.

The emergency also prompted a flurry of travel advisories to the Indian Ocean archipelago, known for its upmarket resorts.

Hundreds of hotel bookings were cancelled, according to media reports, but official figures show an increase in tourist arrivals in the month of February as compared with the same period last year.

The bill will only worsen the difficult conditions for the 420,000 Palestinians living in occupied East Jerusalem, who are treated as foreign immigrants by Israel [Ammar Awad/Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Under a recently enacted law, Israel’s Interior Minister Aryeh Deri has expressed his intentions to strip the residency status of 12 Palestinians in Jerusalem, accusing them of being involved in “terror”.

The law, passed two weeks ago, gives the interior minister the power to strip the residency documents of any Palestinian on grounds of a “breach of loyalty” to Israel.

It will also apply in cases where residency status was obtained on the basis of false information, and in cases where “an individual committed a criminal act” in the view of the interior ministry.

Four of the 12 are affiliated with the Hamas political movement. They were the subject of a controversy in September 2017 when Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that Israeli authorities had no right to strip them of their residency on “breach of loyalty”, after a 10-year legal battle.

When the four were elected to the Palestinian Authority’s legislative body in 2006, Israel’s then-Interior Minister Ronnie Bar-On revoked their Jerusalem residency status, claiming a “breach of loyalty” for being members of a foreign parliament and of Hamas.

They were deported with their families to the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah.

But last year, the Supreme Court ruled that the interior minister does not have the power to do so after a petition was filed by rights groups.

In response, the Israeli government enacted the bill two weeks ago, giving the minister the legal means to strip the residency documents of any Palestinian whom he deems a threat.

Fadi al-Qawasmi, a lawyer for the four parliamentarians, said Deri might not be able to prove that the four men were implicated in a “breach of loyalty”, particularly because the law is vague.

“When they revoked their residencies [10 years ago], they did not prove that they had committed a violation. How will they put them on trial retroactively?” al-Qawasmi told Al Jazeera.

The lawyer added that since the parliamentarians have no legal residence in any other country, the interior ministry may be forced to give them a special legal status, even if they were deported to the occupied West Bank.

‘illegal under international law’
In addition to the four Hamas parliamentarians, the interior minister is also considering revoking the residency status of other Palestinians in Jerusalem involved in carrying out attacks against Israelis, according to the Israeli daily Haaretz.

Rights groups have blasted the new law as racist and illegal.

“East Jerusalem is considered occupied territory under international humanitarian law (IHL) – like all other areas of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip – and its Palestinian residents are a protected civilian population,” Adalah, a Palestinian rights group in Israel, said.

“It is therefore illegal under IHL to impose upon them an obligation of loyalty to the occupying power, let alone to deny them the permanent residency status on this basis,” the statement read.

Status of Palestinians in Jerusalem

Despite Israel’s claims that occupied East Jerusalem is part of its “eternal, undivided” capital, the Palestinians who are born and live there do not hold Israeli citizenship, unlike their Jewish counterparts.

Palestinians in the city are given “permanent residency” ID cards and temporary Jordanian passports that are only used for travel purposes. They are essentially stateless, stuck in legal limbo – they are not citizens of Israel, nor are they citizens of Jordan or Palestine.

The new bill will only worsen the difficult conditions for the 420,000 Palestinians living in occupied East Jerusalem, who are treated as foreign immigrants by the state.

Since 1967, Israel has revoked the status of at least 14,000 Palestinians.

Deri, the interior minister, who was, in the past, convicted of bribery, fraud and “breach of trust”, says this law would allow him to protect the “security of Israeli citizens”.

Between 12,000 to 13,000 people have reportedly fled Eastern Ghouta as of Friday [Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Thousands of civilians have fled the besieged Syrian rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta, in what is believed to be the largest exodus in one day in the country’s seven-year war, as deadly air strikes continue.

Faced with the prospect of more deadly government bombardments, thousands of civilians abandoned the town of Hamouriyah, which has been at the centre of fighting between rebels and military forces.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that 46 civilians, including at least six children, were killed in air strikes in the Kafr Batna district on Friday morning.

As the attacks continue, an estimated 2,000 people more people left the rebel-held area on Friday morning, according to the Russian defence ministry.

Earlier on Friday, it was reported that between 12,000 and 13,000 people have fled the area east of Damascus overnight and into Friday morning.

Grabbing what they could carry and loading it into their vehicles, desperate civilians streamed out of their homes, fleeing to areas controlled by the government.

Images posted online showed elderly women in wheelchairs and children carried by their parents as they walked amid the ruins.

Once controlled by rebels, Hamouriyah is now being surrounded by government forces.

“There is no water, no medicine that could provided to our children, not even food,” an evacuee said.

SOHR said as many as 20,000 people have abandoned their homes, with many still waiting to be transported to safe zones.

Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher, reporting from Gaziantep in Turkey, said the exodus was expected after the Syrian forces cut off supplies.

After nearly four weeks of relentless bombardment, which has left more than 1,250 civilians including children dead, government forces are inching closer to capturing the rest of the enclave, forcing civilians to flee. Regime forces have already split the enclave, under siege since 2013, into three sections.

Rebels, however, claimed that they have retaken Hamouriyah, one of the districts in Eastern Ghouta.

No medical aid

Meanwhile, some 25 trucks of food aid were allowed into Eastern Ghouta’s Douma district, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

It is unclear how long the food supply would last in an area believed to be populated with as many as 125,000.

The aid does not include medical supplies.

The entire Eastern Ghouta is home to 400,000 people, and it has been under a government siege since mid-2013.

The area is one of the last major remaining strongholds under the armed opposition, who are aiming to topple the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

The enclave is the current major battleground in Syria’s war, which entered its eighth year on Thursday.

According to UNHCR figures, there have been nearly 500,000 people killed and over 11 million displaced in the war.

Meanwhile, dozens of Syrian civilians, including children, have been killed, as Turkish troops and its allied armed groups bombarded the city of Afrin in Syria’s Kurdish region.

The Syrian Observatory, a monitoring group based in the UK, said on Friday that the continued push by Turkish forces into Afrin have forced as many as 30,000 civilians to flee since Wednesday.

On Friday alone, 2,500 people have been displaced because of the fighting.

Meanwhile, foreign ministers of Russia, Iran and Turkey met in Kazakhstan’s capital, Astana, on Friday to continue negotiations on how to end the civil war in the Middle East country.

The agenda at the meeting also included how to maintain security in the established de-escalation zones as well as political and humanitarian issues.

The next round of talks is expected in the middle of May.

Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from Astana, said that there have also been reports of the Russian government negotiating with rebel forces on the situation in Eastern Ghouta.

Our correspondent, however, said that when it comes to the question of transition and the political future of Syria, the parties in the negotiation remain unsettled.

A damaged vehicle of the convoy of Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah was removed after the explosion [Mohammed Salem/Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

An explosion has struck the convoy of Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah upon his entrance into the Gaza Strip, lightly injuring several people.

The explosive device detonated shortly after Hamdallah and his convoy passed through the Israeli-controlled Erez checkpoint, known Palestinians as Beit Hanoun, in northern Gaza on Tuesday, an Al Jazeera correspondent in Gaza reported.

Hamdallah was unharmed and appeared on live television shortly after the incident at the inauguration of a wastewater treatment facility.

However, five others were lightly injured in the blast.

The Palestinian Authority intelligence chief Majed Faraj was part of the convoy.

Fatah, the West Bank-based political party to which Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas belongs, called it a “terrorist attack” and blamed it on Hamas, the ruling party in Gaza.

“This attack is an attempt to kill all reconciliation efforts. It is a dangerous step aimed at spreading disorder and fighting among our people,” said Munir al-Jaghoub, heads Fatah’s information department at the Office of Mobilisation and Organisation.

“We demand that Hamas expedites its investigation. The developments have proven that Hamas has completely failed in providing security in Gaza, just as it has failed in providing a decent life for our people in the strip,” added Jaghoub.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Iyad al-Buzom, Gaza’s interior ministry spokesperson, said the act of placing blame “has a political dimension”.

“Here in Gaza, we take all the security precautions to welcome all the convoys and delegations and particularly the prime minister as he entered Gaza,” he said.

He added that “several suspects were arrested a short while ago,” and that an investigation “to find out who was behind the explosion” is under way.

Hamas and Fatah, the two main Palestinian political parties, signed a reconciliation agreement in October 2017, ending a decade of division that saw two parallel governments operating in Gaza and the West Bank, respectively.

The agreement to form a unity government was signed in the Egyptian capital in Cairo on October 13, but efforts to implement the agreement have faced several obstacles.

Mustafa Ibrahim, a Gaza-based political analyst, believes there are “several sides who are benefitting from this explosion”.

“We will hear Fatah saying that some members of Hamas do not want reconciliation, and likewise, we will hear Hamas saying this could have been a fabricated attack by Fatah’s security services,” Ibrahim told Al Jazeera.

“The ones who will pay the price are the Palestinian people themselves. The Palestinian Authority may impose more punitive measures against the Gaza Strip and it is imperative that Hamas captures those behind the attack as soon as possible,” he continued.

“This explosion will have repercussions for the people in Gaza.”

At least 42 people killed in relentless air raids as Syrian government forces encircle the central town of Douma.

The Damascus suburb, home to some 400,000 people, has been under the control of armed opposition groups since 2013 [File: Anadolu]

by Al Jazeera

At least 42 people have been killed in Syria’s Eastern Ghouta as government forces continue to launch air raids on the rebel-held enclave while edging closer to its central towns.

Activists in Douma, one of the main urban centres, told Al Jazeera on Sunday that Syrian jets have “not stopped bombing towns all over Ghouta”.

Syrian state television reported the town of Mudeira had been seized on Sunday by the army, which was now able to link up with units on the other side of Eastern Ghouta.

Government forces have now surrounded Douma after capturing the neighbouring town of Mesraba, 10km east of Damascus, on Saturday, it said.

The advance on Mudeira has driven a wedge deep inside the rebel-held territory, leaving Douma and Harasta cut off.

Civilians trapped

The UN estimates there are 400,000 civilians trapped in Eastern Ghouta.

Activist Nour Adam said eight people died in Jobar, a town east of the capital Damascus, and 16 people from the same family were killed in an attack on Douma.

The rest died in attacks that hit the towns of Harasta, Zamalka, and Irbin, Adam said.

On Saturday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, told Al Jazeera that Eastern Ghouta had been divided into three – Douma and its surroundings; Harasta in the west; and the rest of the towns further south.

The government’s latest offensive on Eastern Ghouta, which began on February 18, has killed 1,099 civilians over the past 21 days, the Syrian Observatory reported.

The figure includes 227 children and 145 women, while at least 4,378 others have been wounded.

The Syrian Civil Defence, a volunteer rescue group also known as the White Helmets, said on Sunday a government attack on Irbin a day earlier involved “chlorine … phosphorus”. It was the second alleged chemical attack to hit the suburb in a matter of days.

The government denies using either incendiary weapons or chlorine gas bombs and said on Saturday it had information the rebels were planning to stage a fake chemical attack to discredit the army.

Previous pattern

The Syrian government’s offensive follows a pattern of previous assaults on opposition strongholds, deploying massive air power and tight sieges to force rebel fighters to accept “evacuation” deals.

These involve rebels surrendering territory in exchange for safe passage to opposition areas in northwest Syria, along with their families and other civilians who do not want to come back under Assad’s rule.

Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher, reporting from Gaziantep along the border in neighbouring Turkey, said Russian-backed Syrian forces tend to use military gains to try and secure a “political advantage”.

“[They do so] by saying to fighters maybe you should move to another part of Syria,” Fisher said.

On Friday, a number of rebel fighters and their families were evacuated from Eastern Ghouta, state media reported.

These include rebels from Jaish al-Islam, one of the main opposition groups in the enclave, which announced it had agreed to the evacuation of several Hay’et Tahrir al-Sham fighters – previously part of al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front – who were detained by the group.

Wael Olwan, spokesman of the rebel group Failaq al-Rahman, with ties to the Free Syrian Army, denied on Sunday that such negotiations were taking place – despite the government’s claims that talks with rebel groups were under way.

Suffocating siege
The Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta has been under the control of armed opposition groups since 2013 – two years after a popular uprising called for the removal of President Bashar al-Assad.

The area has been under a suffocating siege by government forces since then in an attempt to drive out rebels.

The ongoing fighting on multiple fronts, coupled with continuous shelling and air raids, has prevented desperately needed food and medical supplies from being delivered to residents trapped inside.

Fighters from besieged Eastern Ghouta were transported on a government bus through the al-Wafeedin corridor [Youssef Badawi/EPA]

by Al Jazeera

In a surprise move, several members of Syria’s armed opposition have been evacuated from rebel-held Eastern Ghouta late on Friday, sources told Al Jazeera.

The evacuation comes as the Syrian army intensified its operations in the central part of the besieged Damascus suburb, state television reported on Saturday.

Jaish al-Islam, one of the main rebel groups in Eastern Ghouta, announced it had agreed to the evacuation of several Hayat Tahrir al-Sham fighters – previously part of al-Qaeda-linked Al Nusra Front – who were detained by the group in Eastern Ghouta.

According to Syrian state media, 13 fighters were evacuated with their families through the al-Wafeedin passage and bussed to Idlib province.

The agreement for the evacuation was reportedly reached with the help of the United Nations and several international entities, in addition to civil society members.

The evacuation deal came after Jaish al-Islam sent a letter last month to the UN vowing to facilitate the evacuation of the former al-Qaeda members.

Split down the middle
Syrian state TV reported that the army is close to cutting the enclave in two.

The Syrian army was advancing near Mesraba and Mudeira, two small towns which represent the last link between the northern and southern halves of the enclave, which is located near to the Syrian capital, Damascus.

Jaish al-Islam and Failaq al-Rahman, another large rebel groups in Eastern Ghouta, said they have staged counter-attacks in recent days that retook some lost positions.

The ferocious three-week assault on the last major rebel stronghold near Damascus has captured about half its area and killed 960 people, according to a war monitor.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also said on Saturday that warplanes, helicopters and artillery were used in bombardment of the area overnight.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Russia, his main ally, say the campaign is needed to end rebel shelling of Damascus and to end the rule of rebels over the area’s civilians.

The offensive follows the pattern of previous assaults on rebel strongholds, deploying massive air power and tight sieges to force rebels to accept “evacuation” deals.

These involve rebels surrendering territory in exchange for safe passage to opposition areas in northwest Syria, along with their families and other civilians who do not want to come back under Assad’s rule.

However, both Jaish al-Islam and Failaq al-Rahman have said they are not negotiating such deals for themselves.

Shortages
The intensity of the government’s attack on an enclave that has been besieged since 2013 and suffers acute shortages of food and medical supplies has drawn Western condemnation and demands by UN aid agencies for a humanitarian halt in fighting.

The United Nations estimates that some 400,000 people are trapped in the enclave.

“Living conditions are harsh… Shop owners and traders are sending their workers to the shelters to sell food for three times their price before the offensive,” said a man in Saqba who identified himself as Abu Abdo in a voice message.

Aid agencies have tried to deliver aid into Eastern Ghouta, but they have only been able to bring in a portion of the amount they wanted.

A convoy was unable to finish unloading on Monday because of continued fighting, bringing in the remaining undelivered food parcels on Friday despite bombardment nearby.

However, UN agencies said most medical supplies had been stripped from the convoy by Syrian government officials and added that the food supplies brought in were insufficient.

The government has opened what it says are several safe routes out of Eastern Ghouta for civilians, but none are known to have left so far and Damascus and Moscow accuse the rebels of preventing them from fleeing the fighting.

Air strikes target Eastern Ghouta’s Douma just after convoy of 13 trucks with food supplies crosses into besieged area.

The previous attempt to deliver aid on Monday fell through due to fighting [File: Bassam Khabieh/Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Air strikes have hit Douma in Syria’s rebel-held Eastern Ghouta just after 13 trucks of food aid had crossed into the enclave, heading for the town, opposition activists and a monitor has said.

The development came on Friday after an overnight pause in fighting encouraged the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to send the convoy in, that had previously been delayed due to violence.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) had previously said that the besieged enclave had witnessed no air strikes for the first time in the last 10 days. Shortly after the aid convoy crossed into the enclave on Friday, however, the monitor said air strikes had resumed.

Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from the Lebanese capital of Beirut, said on Friday that the aid was enough for 12,000 out of 400,000 people in the area.

“The ICRC are saying that they have positive indications that a bigger convoy will be allowed in the coming days,” she said, prior to the reports that air raids had resumed.

“But it is unlikely to include any medical supplies, because the government does not want rebels to be treated.”

In less than two weeks, the Syrian army has retaken nearly all the farmland in Eastern Ghouta, under cover of near-ceaseless shelling and air strikes, leaving only a dense sprawl of towns – about half the enclave – still under rebel control.

SOHR on Friday said at least 931 civilians have been killed since February 18. According to Doctors Without Borders (MSF), more than 1,000 people have been killed.

‘Safe routes’
UN aid agencies have pleaded with the Syrian government and its ally, Russia, to halt the campaign and allow access.

Damascus and Moscow have both said the assault is needed to stop rebel shelling of Damascus.

The UN estimates that 400,000 people live in rebel-held areas of Eastern Ghouta. The government and Russia’s military have opened what they say are safe routes out of the enclave, but nobody has left yet.

Damascus and Moscow accuse the rebels of shooting at civilians to prevent them from fleeing the fighting into government areas.

Rebels deny this and say the area’s inhabitants have not crossed into government territory because they fear persecution.

by Al Jazeera

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has offered to recognise the Taliban as a legitimate political group, as part of a proposed process he said could lead to talks aimed at ending more than 16 years of war.

Ghani’s offer on Wednesday, made at the start of an international conference aimed at creating a platform for peace talks, adds to a series of signals from both the Western-backed government and the Taliban suggesting a greater willingness to consider dialogue.

Ghani proposed a ceasefire and prisoner release as part of a range of options, including new elections involving the armed group, and a constitutional review as part of a pact with the Taliban.

“We are making this offer without preconditions in order to lead to a peace agreement,” Ghani said in opening remarks at the conference, attended by officials from about 25 countries involved in the so-called Kabul Process.

“The Taliban are expected to give input to the peace-making process, the goal of which is to draw the Taliban, as an organisation, to peace talks,” he said.

The comments represented a significant shift for Ghani, who, in the past, has regularly called the Taliban “terrorists” and “rebels”, although he has also offered to talk to parts of the movement that accepted peace.

The Taliban, fighting to return to power after its 2001 removal by US-led forces, has offered to begin talks with the US, but has, so far, refused direct discussions with Kabul. It was unclear whether the group would be prepared to shift its stance, despite growing international pressure.

“I think that what they are saying is that the door is still open. They have shown a softness in their stand,” said political analyst Habib Wadark.

“Not just the Taliban, but the Afghan government and its international counterparts, and I think it is a perfect time not for a peace deal to be struck at this stage but probably a temporary ceasefire, which can then pave the path of a sustainable peace in the long term,” he told Al Jazeera.

Ghani, who recently helped launch the latest stage of a major, regional gas pipeline from Turkmenistan, said the momentum for peace was building from neighbouring countries that increasingly saw the necessity of a stable Afghanistan.

“The Taliban show awareness of these contextual shifts and seem to be engaged in a debate on the implications of acts of violence for their future,” he said.

Political office
Ghani said a framework for peace negotiations should be created with the Taliban recognised as a legitimate group, with their own political office to handle negotiations in Kabul or another agreed location.

Taliban officials have acknowledged they have faced pressure from friendly countries to accept talks, and said their recent offers to talk to the US reflected concern that they could be seen to be standing in the way of peace.

Ghani said the process would be accompanied by coordinated diplomatic support, including a global effort to persuade neighbouring Pakistan, which Kabul has regularly accused of aiding the Taliban, of the advantages of a stable Afghanistan.

He renewed an offer of talks with Pakistan, which rejects the accusations and points to the thousands of its citizens who have been killed by armed groups over the years.

In return for Ghani’s offer, the Taliban would have to recognise the Afghan government and respect the rule of law, he said.

In addition, Taliban prisoners could be released and their names removed from international blacklists, while security arrangements could be made for the Taliban members agreeing to join a process of reconciliation. Former fighters and refugees could be reintegrated and provided with jobs.

The US last year stepped up its military assistance to Afghanistan, notably through a sharp increase in air attacks, with the aim of breaking a stalemate with the fighters and forcing them to the negotiating table.

While the US military says the strategy has hit the Taliban hard, the group still controls or contests much of the country and continues to inflict severe casualties on Afghan forces.

The Taliban also claimed responsibility for two major attacks in Kabul last month that killed or wounded hundreds of civilians.