Dacic: Negotiations with Taliban Forces in Belgrade Were Organized by Afghan High Peace Council

Ivica Dacic

Serbian National Assembly Speaker Ivica Dacic once again said on Aug. 23 that the negotiations between the then Afghan government and the rebels, which he presumed “were Taliban,” had been held in Belgrade.  

In an interview for Pink TV, Dacic said that three such meetings were held in Serbia’s capital, with several months apart, and that all of them had been organized by the Afghan High Peace Council (HPC), an officially body of the Afghan government. Serbia authorities, he added, had not participated in any of the meetings. 

Dacic further said that when the HPC’s request to have the talks in Belgrade had come in, he had asked “the president [Aleksandar Vucic] about it so that we don’t make a mistake, and he gave the green light.” 

Commenting on the situation in Afghanistan, he said that Serbia has “diplomatic relations” with that country and that “diplomatic relations are not established with governments but with states.” 

When asked if Serbia will maintain diplomatic relations with Afghanistan while it is under the Taliban forces which are enforcing the Sharia law, Dacic replied that many other countries are governed by the same legal system, such as Saudi Arabia – a country Serbia had been collaborating with.