Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, the chairman of the High Council For National Reconciliation, offered prisoner release, and delisting of the Taliban leaders from the UN blacklist if the insurgent group agree to peace, reported TOLOnews.

In the past, several opportunities for peace have been lost, he said, adding the country couldn’t afford to waste this opportunity. Currently, the Afghan government and the Taliban have been engaged in the US-brokered intra-Afghan negotiation in Doha, Qatar, since September last year.

“We have lost a lot of opportunities, if these opportunities (current talks in Doha) are wasted, then we will not have much time to work—every single day, the people are sacrificed due to the prevailing war,” Dr. Abdullah was quoted as saying by TOLOnews.

The Afghan government, contrary to Abdullah’s assurance, has refused, many times earlier, for any more prisoner release. Afghan NSA Hamidullah Mohib had said they had credible information that the prisoners who had been released earlier were involved in making IED bombs and fighting.

Till now, the five months of talks failed to bring any substantial changes in the lives of ordinary Afghans whose hopes were high at the time of the beginning of these historic talks. Ever since the talks began, the fighting and bombings all across the country have increased multifold.

The Afghan capital, Kabul, where IED bombings became a daily affair, yesterday saw four IED bombings, some in the places considered to be the safest in the city.

Just days earlier, Nader Nadery, a member of the Afghan negotiation team, had said that the Taliban were not “showing interest in attending” meetings of the working groups.