The Afghan Taliban have said they are ready for talks with the Afghan government after the Eid al-Adha holiday next month, provided the prisoner exchange process is completed.
According to the French news agency AFP, published in the Dawn newspaper, for the first time since the start of talks on March 10, the two sides have been given time to negotiate with this conditional offer.
The development comes at a time when escalating violence in Afghanistan threatens US efforts to persuade Kabul and the Taliban to negotiate, ending a 19-year war in Afghanistan.
In this regard, the Taliban's political spokesman Sohail Shaheen tweeted on the social networking site Twitter that if the release of prisoners is completed, the Taliban are ready for inter-Afghan talks after Eid.
"If Kabul releases all prisoners according to our list, the Taliban are ready to release other Afghan security forces in their custody," he added.
It should be noted that the exchange of prisoners was agreed under an agreement between the United States and the Taliban, which proved to be an important point before the peace talks.
The Afghan government, which was not part of the agreement between the United States and the Taliban, is to release 5,000 Taliban fighters, while the Taliban has promised to release 1,000 Afghan security forces in its custody.
On the other hand, Javed Faisal, spokesman for the Afghan National Security Council, said that many of the released Taliban prisoners were dangerous fighters who quickly returned to the battlefield.
He said in a tweet on the social networking site Twitter that the Taliban should stick to its promise to prevent released prisoners from returning to violence.
After Sohail Shaheen's tweet, he said, "Stop the violence, be ready for inter-Afghan talks as soon as possible."
So far, the Afghan government has released 4,400 Taliban prisoners, while the Taliban say they have released 864 government prisoners.
Despite failed progress on prisoner exchanges, violence in Afghanistan has escalated and security forces are being attacked by the Taliban almost daily.
