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Taliban Say Won’t Discuss Other Topics Before Agreeing on Troops Withdrawal
The U.S. and Taliban officials resumed their sixth round of talks in Qatar on Wednesday as the group says it won’t discuss other topics before agreeing over “full withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan and preventing Afghanistan from harming others”.
In October, U.S. and Taliban representatives agreed in a draft on withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan in return for a Taliban guarantee that Afghanistan will not be used by militants to threaten the U.S. and its allies in the world.
In this round, U.S. Special Envoy for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad is expected to focus on an intra-Afghan dialogue and a declaration of a ceasefire.
But the Taliban spokesman said in a statement that Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar the co-founder of the group and Head of the Taliban’s Political Office in Qatar has met with Ambassador Khalilzad and Indonesian Foreign Minister in Qatar where they have discussed the Afghan peace process.
The statement added that without finalizing the “full withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan” and preventing Afghanistan from harming others, the group “cannot enter into other topics”.
Omid Maysam, a spokesman for the Office of Afghanistan’s Chief Executive said on Wednesday that the Afghan government hopes this round of talks pave the way for the beginning of direct talks between the government and the Taliban and end of the ongoing war in the country.
Sayed Akbar Agha, a former Taliban official told Ariana News that the U.S. and Taliban may agree on the timeline of foreign forces withdrawal from Afghanistan on this round of talks.
“In this round of talks, the timetable of the withdrawal of the foreign forces will be finalized. Both sides have discussed with their people and there are a lot of hopes that the external aspect of Afghanistan issue will be resolved and intra-Afghan dialogue will begin,” Agha said.
Meanwhile, Mohammad Omar Daudzai, Ghani’s Special Envoy for Peace welcomed the sixth round of U.S.-Taliban talks and said the government is optimistic about it.
This comes as the U.S. government has not commented regarding the latest round of U.S.-Taliban talks.
Pakistan’s government on Friday extended the stay of Afghan refugees in the country till June 30, amid repatriation of illegal foreign nationals.
There are around 1.3 million registered Afghans living in Pakistan, according to a spokesman for UN refugee agency UNHCR in Islamabad, Dawn newspaper reported.
“On the recommendation of the Ministry of States and Frontier Regions, the federal cabinet approved the extension of the validity of PoR cards of Afghan refugees from April 1, 2024, to June 30, 2024,” said an official statement, issued by the Prime Minister’s Office.
The PoR cardholders will be repatriated in the third phase of the plan that will begin after the repatriation of “illegal foreign nationals” residing in Pakistan is completed, the statement added.
The PoR card holders avail schools, bank accounts and other facilities in Pakistan.
Repatriation of undocumented refugees began on November 1 and continues. More than 500,000 Afghans have been expelled so far.
John Bass, US acting under secretary of state for political affairs, will travel to Qatar and Pakistan April 26-30, US State Department announced on Friday.
In Doha, Qatar, he will meet with senior Qatari government officials and other diplomatic missions to discuss support for Afghanistan and shared security interests in the region, US State Department said in a statement.
In Islamabad, Pakistan, Under Secretary Bass will meet with senior Pakistani government officials to discuss a range of regional and bilateral issues as part of the U.S.-Pakistani partnership, the statement added.
John Bass served as US ambassador to Afghanistan under Donald Trump administration between December 2017 and January 2020.
A tripartite meeting between the delegations of Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan was held in Kabul with the aim of connecting North Asia to South Asia and reducing transit and transportation costs among these three countries, the Ministry of Trade and Commerce said in a statement.
In this meeting, an agreement was reached on the creation of a joint technical committee to continue the talks.
This tripartite meeting was held under the leadership of Nooruddin Azizi, the Acting Minister of Industry and Commerce, Vice President of Turkmenistan and Srik Zhumangarin, the Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan.
Earlier, a bilateral meeting was held between the delegation of the Islamic Emirate and Turkmenistan. The ministry of commerce said the participants of the meeting discussed the construction of a large joint logistics center in Torghondi, the trilateral transit agreement between the IEA, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan, the expansion of Afghanistan’s railway, solving issues related to Afghan transit and export goods, and a number of other commercial issues.
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