Ghani offers another Afghan ceasefire

KABUL – Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, defying expectations just days after a major Taliban attack on a large Afghan city, announced Sunday afternoon that his government would offer a two-month ceasefire to the insurgents on the condition that they respond positively.

In a live televised address marking Afghanistan’s independence from Britain in 1919, Ghani called on Taliban leaders to “welcome the wishes of Afghans for a long-lasting and real peace” and urged them to prepare for peace talks. He said the truce would go into effect Monday, the eve of a three-day Muslim festival, and last until Oct., “provided that the Taliban reciprocate.”

There was no immediate response from the Taliban, which has staged numerous violent attacks across the country in the past two weeks. The most spectacular was a major ground assault on the city of Ghazni, which left more than 200 dead and buildings in ruins. Fighting raged four days until U.S. air strikes and Afghan commando reinforcements finally drove out hundreds of insurgents.

Before the Ghazni attack, there were rising hopes for a repeat of a successful three-day truce in June in which insurgent fighters joined civilians and government troops to celebrate the end of Ramadan. But many Afghans had predicted that the spate of attacks would force Ghani to abort widely rumored plans to announce a new cease-fire during the Muslim festival of Eid-ul-Adha, which begins Tuesday.

Some observers, though, said they thought the Ghazni attack – the most serious assault on an Afghan city since 2015 -- was not intended to sabotage peace talks but to give the insurgents an advantage at the negotiating table. Ghani had proposed extending the June ceasefire but the Taliban did not respond. This time, he made his offer conditional on their acquiescence.

The president said that numerous segments of Afghan society, including Muslim scholars and clerics, political parties, civic groups and members of the government High Peace Council, had called for an end to bloodshed and a negotiated settlement to the 17-year conflict. He asked the insurgents to be ready for talks that would be “based on Islamic values and principles.”

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