As Afghans await the results of a presidential election roiled by Taliban threats, the government used its platform at the UN General Assembly on Monday to tell the insurgents: "Join us in peace, or we will continue to fight."

Afghanistan's national security adviser, Hamdullah Mohib, spoke two days after his countrymen voted in a presidential election in which hundreds of polling centers weren't opened because the country couldn't secure them against the Taliban. The militants control or hold sway over roughly half the country and warned voters not to go to the polls.

Results of the elections aren't due for weeks.

Mohib trumpeted the democratic commitment of Afghans who voted despite the threats — some despite having had fingers cut off by the Taliban during prior elections, he noted.

In a country where a new generation of leaders has grown up in wartime, "the opportunities afforded to us through the gains of the past 20 years have allowed us to change hope into something much more powerful — belief," Mobib said.

"We believe in our abilities to bring about the peace we have hoped for all our lives."

The path is far from clear. U.S.-Taliban peace talks collapsed earlier this month as a deal seemed imminent to end America's longest war. 

The Afghan government had been sidelined in the talks; the Taliban refused to talk directly with an administration the insurgents see as a U.S. puppet.