Afghanistan: Taliban confirms talks with US peace envoy in Qatar

Published on Monday, 15 October , 2018 107 Views

Government

A Taliban delegation has met with US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad in Qatar to discuss ending the Afghan conflict, the armed group said on Saturday, in the first official confirmation of talks between the two sides.

Boursa Kuwait ‘confident’ of MSCI upgrade, says CEO

Boursa Kuwait is “confident” that MSCI will upgrade it to emerging market status in 2019, according to CEO…

The meeting with Khalilzad and other US officials took place on Friday and talks will continue, the Taliban said in a statement emailed to journalists.

The meeting occured as President Donald Trump’s administration pushed to find a way to end the 17-year-old Afghan war, the Wall Street Journal previously reported.

The Journal, citing a person familiar with the gathering, said Khalilzad met with Taliban officials in Doha, the second time in four months that US officials have held face-to-face talks with Taliban representatives.

Khalilzad’s is currently on his first trip as special representative. The 11-day trip was to take him to Afghanistan, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

Fighting between the Taliban and Afghan forces continues 17 years after US intervention [Rahmat Gul/AP Photo]

The State Department declined to say whether the meeting with Taliban officials in Doha took place.

Alice Wells, the State Department deputy assistant secretary for South and Central Asia, met Taliban officials in Doha in July for what were described as talks about talks.

A Taliban official who was part of the four-person delegation to that meeting said it produced “very positive signals”.

A US-led coalition forced the Taliban from power in 2001 in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks on Washington and New York.

The group has seized a number of districts across the country in recent years and regularly attack security forces, often killing dozens.

Taliban officials have set the withdrawal of American forces as a pre-condition for peace talks.

Walima Doha launches all-new Saturday sundowner sessions

Mondrian Doha, Qatar’s leading destination from global lifestyle hospitality company sbe, is pleased to announce the launch of…

Category Government | 2018/10/15 latest update at 5:30 PM
Source : Al Jazeera | Photocredit : Google

108 Views
Comments Add comment

The editorial staff of Qatar Today would like to give all of its readers from Gulf and Qatar and the whole world the opportunity to participate actively in the development of the website! If you have something interesting, fun, scandalous - just something worth to be seen from more people. Capture it and share it in the Qatar Today with a short text.

Do you have information you want to reach our readers?

Send article/s

You can subscribe to our Facebook, Twitter and Google pages or use our RSS feed channel to always read the most important news about Qatar, the Gulf and the world.