• Zalmay congratulated them on their agreement to form an inclusive government after protracted negotiations.

US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad met Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation Dr Abdullah Abdullah on Wednesday.

In a tweet, the US envoy said that he congratulated both leaders on their agreement to form an inclusive government after protracted negotiations. He continued that they all agreed that violence is 'much too high and there is a need to move urgently to reduce it by all sides'.

"We also agreed on the importance of delivering (and soon) on other commitments made in the US-Taliban agreement and US-Afghanistan joint declaration including release of prisoners by both sides and the start of intra-Afghan negotiations," Khalilzad tweeted.

We discussed next steps required to implement the agreement between the 2 leaders. On peace, we agreed that violence is much too high and there is a need to move urgently to reduce it by all sides.

— U.S. Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad (@US4AfghanPeace) May 21, 2020

jj