International Shia News Agency
All NewsAsia-PacificNEWS BRIEFSOther NewsUSworld

Ninth round of talks between US and Taliban began in Doha

SHAFAQNA- The United States and the Taliban officials resumed talks in Qatar on Thursday to firm up a deal enabling the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in return for the Taliban security guarantees, the Taliban and senior U.S. official said.

They have resumed negotiations in Qatar’s capital on finding a peaceful solution to Afghanistan’s long-running war that has killed hundreds of thousands of Afghan civilians, reports Trend citing Reuters.

Regular meetings have been held in Doha since October aimed at ending 18 years of military intervention in Afghanistan, aljazeera mentioned.

Key issues in Thursday’s talks, which began a day after US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad arrived in Doha, remain the withdrawal of US and other foreign forces from the country and a commitment by the Taliban that Afghanistan will not be used as a launchpad for global attacks.

The two sides entered peace negotiations in October last year, and an agreement on these two central issues would set the stage for separate negotiations between Afghan officials and the Taliban on a permanent ceasefire and a power-sharing government.

The Taliban has so far refused to speak to the Afghan government, calling a “puppet regime”. The group says any engagement with Kabul would grant it legitimacy.

About 20,000 foreign troops, most of them American, are now in Afghanistan as part of a U.S.-led NATO mission to train, assist and advise Afghan forces.

It’s the closest the U.S. has come to a diplomatic breakthrough with the Taliban, and foreign policy scholars are cautiously optimistic that it could facilitate a U.S. exit. But a new report from the Costs of War Project at Brown University’s Watson Institute argues that the agreement won’t lead to real peace unless it addresses the elephant in the room: the fate of regional Afghan militias paid and directed by the CIA, theintercept told.

Related posts

Afghanistan: Over 250 schools in Herat ‘unusable’ due to earthquake damage

leila yazdani

Tireless efforts of Afghan women not to surrender to the conditions imposed by Taliban

leila yazdani

Afghanistan: Businesswomen-Traders suffer from absence of Nowruz programs in Balkh Province

leila yazdani

UNICEF: Over 1.4 million girls in Afghanistan deprived of going to school

nasibeh yazdani

Afghanistan: As new academic year begins 1.4 million female students deprived of education

anvari

Food crisis in Afghanistan and issues of malnutrition

parniani

Leave a Comment