Taliban, US set to hold crucial round of Afghan peace talks

[ahlam1399]

ISLAMABAD: The United States and the Taliban are scheduled to hold a crucial round of negotiations in Qatar early this week amid high expectations of a breakthrough in nearly a year-long process towards ending the war in Afghanistan.This would be the seventh round of talks hosted by the Qatari capital of Doha, where the insurgent group maintains an informal political office. The US team is being led by Afghan-born American reconciliation envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad.The dialogue, which excludes the Afghan government, has focused on the withdrawal of American forces from the country in exchange for Taliban assurances that transnational terrorists would be not be allowed to use Afghan soil for attacks against other countries, VOA reported.The US and Taliban negotiators were expected to conclude an agreement covering the two issues in their last meeting in May, but the discussions stalled over the Taliban’s refusal to cease hostilities and participate in an intra-Afghan peace dialogue until Washington announced a troop drawdown timetable.A Taliban spokesman has dismissed reported assertions of a stalemate in the dialogue in the wake of US insistence that the final agreement must cover a cease-fire and the insurgent group’s engagement in intra-Afghan talks, involving the Kabul government.“I don’t see the dialogue is deadlocked. It is progressing, but steadily or gradually,” Suhail Shaheen, who speaks for the insurgent negotiating team, told VOA ahead of the upcoming talks.“I hope with the announcement of a timetable for withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan, the process may gain momentum, paving the way for the Afghans to sit together and chart a road map for a future Islamic system and government,” Shaheen said.Khalilzad, in a statement ahead of the upcoming meeting with the Taliban, also vowed he would “try to bring the first two parts of our peace framework to closure,” but he emphasised success would require other parties to show flexibility.“We hope Khalilzad will deliver what he has promised — that he would try to bring to closure the framework for peace on these two issues,” Shaheen said when asked to respond to comments by the chief American negotiator.Official sources in Kabul said a two-day peace dialogue among Afghans, including government and Taliban representatives, is being arranged in Doha early next month. The sources said the meeting was scheduled for July 7 and would be an outcome of the upcoming US-Taliban negotiations.http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/com/cwEr/~4/PghfZJbCOUE

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