Kabul: The latest round of talks with the Taliban – now in their second week – has been “very productive,” a member of the American negotiating team said Friday, while strenuously denying Washington sought a fixed deadline for the withdrawal of its estimated 14,000 troops from Afghanistan as part of a final peace deal.
Negotiations have had fresh momentum in recent weeks after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, at the end of last month. At the time, he said Washington was hopeful of an agreement before September 1.
- Appointment of Zalmay Khalilzad as a US special peace envoy last year began the accelerated effort to find a negotiated end to Afghanistan’s war and America’s longest military engagement
- Since then Khalilzad has held scores of talks with the Afghan government in Kabul and abroad, with the Taliban as well as with Afghanistan’s neighbours — including Pakistan
The appointment last year of Zalmay Khalilzad as a US special peace envoy began the accelerated effort to find a negotiated end to Afghanistan’s war and America’s longest military engagement.
Since then Khalilzad has held scores of talks with the Afghan government in Kabul and abroad, with the Taliban as well as with Afghanistan’s neighbours — including Pakistan which has been accused of aiding the insurgents.
The US official in Qatar’s capital, Doha, where the Taliban maintain a political office and talks are being held, told The Associated Press that the US “definitely did not offer” an 18-month withdrawal as part of a peace deal.
Speaking anonymously because of the sensitivity of the talks, the US negotiator was responding to a timeframe Taliban officials told the AP months earlier.
The US negotiator said the deal being negotiated in Doha with the Taliban is “comprehensive and includes specifics on all four parts including a ceasefire, timeline, participating in intra-Afghan negotiations and counter-terrorism assurances.”
Saturday, several prominent Afghan figures left Kabul for Doha ahead of much-anticipated all-Afghan talks to begin Sunday. The talks are co-sponsored by Germany and Qatar, and include the Taliban.
