Qatar participates in ICG meeting on Afghanistan

Qatar participated in the International Contact Group (ICG) meeting on Afghanistan held in Oslo, Norway.The delegation was chaired by the Special Envoy of Qatar’s Foreign Minister for Counterterrorism and Mediation of Conflict Resolution, Dr Mutlaq bin Majed al-Qahtani.The meeting, which was co-chaired by Afghanistan and Germany discussed establishing the peace process in Afghanistan through unifying the international stance towards the situation in Afghanistan.The meeting also discussed undertaking cross-group consultations to assist Afghanistan in restoring stability, security and peace.The meeting also welcomed the Qatari efforts in its good offices and in the mediation of a political solution to the situation in Afghanistan.Al-Qahtani explained the efforts made by Qatar in the Afghan peace process and its commitment to continue to bring peace.He reaffirmed that Qatar does not believe in the military solution in Afghanistan.With regards to the Taliban office in Doha, al-Qahtani said it only exists to facilitate dialogue and negotiations with all the conflict parties, and reiterated the need for co-operation between all parties and engagement in direct negotiations without preconditions.Al-Qahtani stressed the need to co-operate to build the competencies of some parties of the conflict, as well as to build their confidence and to prepare the necessary conditions for real and serious negotiations and provide the necessary political incentives to create the conditions for successful negotiations and unite the efforts and motives to achieve this.At the end of the meeting, Qatar announced its invitation to host the ICG on Afghanistan in Doha by the end of 2018.On the sidelines of the meeting, al-Qahtani met separately with Deputy Foreign Minister of Afghanistan Hekmat Karzai, German Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Markus Potzel, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia Alice Wells and Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), Tadamichi Yamamoto.The meetings touched on a number of topics most prominently, the unique role Qatar is playing in mediating and its stance on the peace process and reconciliation in Afghanistan.The meetings also discussed the rejection by all parties of a military solution to the peace process in Afghanistan as well as the regional and international stance towards Afghanistan and the importance of regional and international co-operation on this matter.