Afghan Conference In Istanbul Postponed, Makes No Sense Without Taliban - Cavusoglu

ANKARA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st April, 2021) The conference on resolving the situation in Afghanistan, which was scheduled to start on April 24 in Istanbul, is postponed, as it makes no sense without the participation of the Taliban movement in it, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Tuesday.

Earlier, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said that a conference with the participation of representatives of the Afghan government and the radical Taliban movement on the Afghan settlement was scheduled in Istanbul from April 24 to May 4. The Taliban announced on April 13 that it would not participate in any conferences until all foreign troops were withdrawn from Afghanistan.

"We agreed that the conference will be held here before May 1, because the United States promised to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan before that date. But this is not an easy process. We discussed the situation with different countries. We decided to postpone the conference to a later date, after the end of Ramadan [May 12]. The Taliban will definitely take part � without it there is no sense in the conference," Cavusoglu told the Haberturk broadcaster.