VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Head of the Indonesian Mosque Council (DMI), Jusuf Kalla, met with Afghan President Asraf Gani at the Afghan Presidential Palace in Kabul on Thursday (December 24, 2020). (ANTARA/HO-JK Team/sh)

Head of the Indonesian Mosque Council (DMI), Jusuf Kalla, has agreed to mediate a dialogue between the Afghan government and the Taliban to end the conflict in the country.

"Of course, we are ready to help for the sake of peace. We are planning to invite the conflicting parties to hold the dialogue in Jakarta. That will be one option. We will invite the Taliban through MUI (the Indonesian Ulemas Council)," Kalla said in a statement received here on Friday.

The MUI will ask the Taliban to hold the dialogue with the Afghan government, he added. Kalla said he will also work in coordination with the Indonesian government, which has initiated the peace process. Afghanistan President Asraf Gani met with Kalla at the Afghan Presidential Palace late on Thursday (December 24, 2020) and asked the former Indonesian vice president to broker the peace dialogue with the Taliban.

Gani said he is optimistic that Kalla's involvement in mediating the dialogue would help end the conflict in the country. Kalla's experience in resolving conflicts in Indonesia could help Afghanistan, especially given his influence among ulemas as DMI head, the Afghan President remarked. Earlier, the Minister of Hajj and Religious Affairs of Afghanistan, Mohammad Qasim Halimi, had reportedly asked Kalla to mediate a dialogue between the government and the Taliban in an effort to broker a peace deal. Meanwhile, head of foreign affairs at the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI), Hamid Awaludin, who will serve as a negotiator on Kalla's team has said he believes that factions in Afghanistan can reach a common understanding as there is no talk on amending the Constitution.

"All factions have agreed on an Islamic government, but there might be differences in the implementation model because it is related to interpretation of the Islamic law," he explained//ANT