Shortly after his pre-recorded message to the nation, President Ashraf Ghani held a consultative meeting with political and jihadi leaders who supported his notion for preventing further instability in the country, the Presidential Palace said.

The participants of the meeting agreed to assign an authoritative team for negotiations to represent the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, the Palace said.

The statement did not elaborate on the nature of the responsibility that will be assigned to the team, but analysts said it might push further plans for overcoming the current situation by pushing plans of ceasefire and an interim setup.

Ahead of this meeting, a group of influential Afghan political leaders met behind closed doors for many hours in a meeting led by Chairman Abdullah Abdullah to discuss the country’s situation, ceasefire and a possible plan to establish an interim government, sources familiar with the matter said.

Abdullah’s last week’s visit to Doha was also discussed in the meeting, the sources said.

Former president Hamid Karzai, former vice president and head of Hizb-e-Wahdat-e-Islami party Mohammad Karim Khalili, head of Jamiat-e-Islami Salahuddin Rabbani, presidential adviser Mohammad Mohaqiq, Parliament Speaker Mir Rahman Rahmani, former vice president Mohammad Yunus Qanooni, Sayed Mansour Naderi, Haji Din Mohammad, Babur Farahmand and Foreign Affairs Minister Mohammad Haneef Atmar. The efforts come as the Taliban is rapidly advancing on the battlefields as it captured three provincial capitals and at least 10 districts in the last 24 hours.