ISLAMABAD: Afghanistan’s warring factions have announced they will begin their first direct peace talks Saturday in Qatar to negotiate a political settlement to the country’s long conflict, VOA has reported.
The landmark dialogue, brokered by the United States, is officially known as intra-Afghan negotiations.
An Afghan government-appointed team of negotiators and interlocutors from the Taliban insurgency will sit at the negotiating table in Doha, the Qatari capital, both parties announced Thursday, according to a VOA report.
In Washington, U.S. President Donald Trump hailed progress in the otherwise troubled Afghan peace process as an outcome of his administration’s “bold diplomatic effort” to help end nearly two decades of war in the South Asian nation, it said.
“I can announce with great pride that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will be departing this evening on a historic trip to Doha for the beginning of intra-Afghan peace negotiations,” Trump told reporters.
The talks stem from a February agreement Washington sealed with the Taliban in Doha to extricate U.S. troops from Afghanistan and close what has become America’s longest war, claiming the lives of more than 2,400 U.S. personnel.
Trump noted, however, that no U.S. service member has been killed since the signing of the pact, according to VOA.
“We’re getting along very, very well with the Taliban, and very well with Afghanistan and its representatives, and we’ll see how it all goes. It’s a negotiation,” Trump said.
The deal required the insurgents to immediately halt attacks on U.S.-led coalition forces and open peace talks with rival Afghan groups.
It has also bound the Taliban to prevent the use of Afghan soil for international terrorism.
In return, the U.S. has reduced its forces in Afghanistan to about 8,600 from around 13,000 at the time of the signing of the deal, which anticipates the removal of all foreign troops by July 2021.
(VOA)
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