Afghanistan: Presidential candidate Dr. Abdullah Abdullah On Prisoner Releases, Peace And Foreign Policy

In exclusive interview with TOLOnews, Presidential candidate Dr. Abdullah Abdullah discussed a number of pressing issues such as the strategy of releasing insurgent prisoners in hopes of furthering the peace process, peace talks themselves as well as Afghan foreign policy broadly. Under President Hamid Karzai, Afghan officials have pushed a controversial strategy of getting imprisoned militants released in hopes of coaxing the Taliban into peace talks. As heated debate over the merits of that tactic rage on, Dr. Abdullah weighed in and offered his two cents. “The release of thousands of criminals and their presence and continued criminal activities in society would undermine the morale of the Afghan forces in their fight against terrorism,” Abdullah said. Many have echoed that sentiment, pointing to examples of released insurgents returning to the battlefield to fight Afghan and coalition forces once again. Abdullah continued on the subject of peace talks, saying that the pursuit of peace was important, but that if militants were not interested in reconciliation and continued their violence then they must be defeated. “We will invite, but together, we will defend the rights of our people,” he said. “We will unite to defend the rights of the innocent against those who don’t want peace and are continuously killing the innocent.” The Karzai government has pushed an increasingly conciliatory tact with the Taliban this year, perhaps looking to get a ceasefire deal in motion before the elections in April, or the NATO troop withdraw deadline at the end of next year. But the government has come under fire as the Taliban has repeatedly rebuffed overtures for negotiations and continued its insurgent campaign unflinchingly. Abdullah also spoke about Afghan foreign policy broadly, and said that it needed to be balanced more than it has in the past. He said Afghanistan has had no clear foreign policy, so it is no wonder there have been issues with neighboring countries. “Unfortunately, there has been no balance in the foreign policy of Afghanistan in the past, and it is very important to solve this issue,” Abdullah said. “So far, we don’t have a clear definition of friends and enemies, neighboring countries have a right to be concerned.” Abdullah served previously as the Minister of Foreign Affairs. He is one of the 10 Presidential candidates that made the Independent Election Commission’s (IEC) preliminary list. TOLOnews will be conducting interviews with each one of the Presedential candidates in the coming weeks.