As the government and the Maoists have failed to resolve differences on arms management, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala has directed to resolve the issues and reach consensus on it by this evening.

Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala (File photo)

Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala (File photo)
In his meeting with the government talks team Tuesday morning at the Prime Minister’s official residence in Baluwatar to discuss the government’s stand on arms management and ongoing peace talks, Prime Minister asked the talks team to find consensus in the issue by holding talks with the Maoist talks team by this evening.

Radio reports quoted sources as saying that a “consensus letter” on the arms management could be finalised by this evening.

The high level UN team led by Staffan de Mistura that returned after the assessment visit of Nepal has asked the government and the Maoists to find consensus in the issue of arms management.

During its weeklong stay in Kathmandu, the UN Mission had held discussions with various personalities including Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, ministers, leaders of the seven-party alliance, CPN (Maoist) and the foreign missions based here. The Mission had set a three-day ‘deadline’ till last Thursday (August 3) for the government and the Maoists to arrive at a consensus on how the UN should engage itself in Nepal’s peace process, but both sides failed to meet the deadline.

The disagreement on the issue is the government is in favour of setting political issues after arms management, while the rebels want to settle the political issues first.

The UN team led by de Mistura is scheduled to submit its study report to the Secretary-General of the UN Kofi Annan on Wednesday.

The government talks team also held meeting with the Prime Minister on Monday as well after the meeting of the council of Ministers to discuss the issue.