The Taliban have been staging near-daily attacks targeting Afghan forces, causing scores of casualties every week ‘Afghanistan’s problem is not so simple that it can be solved in a day, week or month, it needs more time and more discussions’ KABUL: Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has called on the Taliban to open direct peace talks with his administration. The Afghan leader’s plea follows his government’s sidelining in recent peace negotiations between the extremists and Washington.In an address-to-the-nation broadcast live on state TV, Ghani said he wanted a “speedy” peace, and hinted at possible risks to an agreement between the Taliban and US if his government continues to be left out of negotiations. “As a responsible and elected leader of 35 million Afghans, I am aware of the region and the world, and know, too, which are the possible risks and threats after the peace deal,” Ghani said. “The Taliban have two options — either with one voice join the great nation of Afghanistan or become the means of implementing the aliens’ goals. (The Taliban) should begin serious talks with the government,” he said in a nationally televised address from the presidential palace in Kabul. Ghani is standing for re-election and has repeatedly spoken out against the formation of an interim government to allow the Taliban and US talks to succeed.He was speaking after an overnight meeting with US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, who briefed him about his six days of talks with the Taliban in Doha. Both the militants and Khalilzad said the discussions, which ended on Saturday, had made significant progress toward ending the 17-year conflict. The US peace envoy to Afghanistan has shared details of his latest round of talks with the Taliban in Qatar with the Afghan president and other government officials in Kabul, a statement from the president’s office said Monday. The statement quoted Zalmay Khalilzad as saying that he had discussed a cease-fire deal with the Taliban but that there was no progress so far on the issue. However, according to a statement released earlier by the president’s office, the US envoy had told Ghani that “no discussion has been held regarding the structure of future establishment of Afghanistan.” Khalilzad rejected the idea of an interim government, the statement said. The envoy told Ghani that his mission was to “facilitate intra-Afghan dialogue” and no decision had been made about the withdrawal of foreign troops. Any pullout would be conducted in coordination with Afghanistan’s government. On Saturday, after six days of meetings with the Taliban in Qatar, Khalilzad on his official twitter account said: “Meetings here were more productive than they have been in the past.” “We made significant progress on vital issues,” he tweeted, without offering details. Abdul Hakim Mujahid, a former Taliban official and currently a member of the High Peace Council, an independent body of clerics and respected Afghan figures, said he believes the Qatar talks resulted in a “good understanding between both sides” but that more discussions are needed in the coming weeks or months. “Afghanistan’s problem is not so simple that it can be solved in a day, week or month, it needs more time and more discussions,” Mujahid told The Associated Press. “What is clear right now he said is that the US is fed up with the war in Afghanistan and wants an end to it.” Mujahid says all three sides — the Afghan government, the United Sates and the Taliban — are willing to talk, but how those talks should take place remains to be worked out. However, the Taliban have in the past refused to negotiate directly with Kabul — a standing that does not appear to have changed. They have maintained they are prepared to talk with US officials only and only about the pullout of foreign forces from Afghanistan. Afghan political analyst Waheed Muzhda says he believes that Khalilzad and the Taliban have reached agreement on both the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan and a cease-fire deal, but that neither side is prepared to say so at this point. “But peace talks are not possible unless both sides first agree on a cease-fire,” Muzhda said. The Taliban have been staging near-daily attacks targeting Afghan forces, causing scores of casualties every week. Their offensive has not let up despite the severe Afghan winter and the Taliban now hold sway over nearly half of the country. That has made peace an even more pressing issue. Khalilzad met with the Taliban on a number of occasions in recent months — most recently last week in Qatar where the Taliban have a political office — in the latest bid to end America’s longest war. The US invaded Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks to topple the Taliban, who were harboring Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda.