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Seventh Round of US-Taliban Talks to Begin on June 29
Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation, said in a tweet on Saturday that the seventh round of the U.S. dialogue with the Taliban will begin on June 29th in Doha.
“Based on my recent visits to Afghanistan and Qatar, I believe all sides want rapid progress,” tweeted Khalilzad.
In this round of the negotiations, the Taliban is expected to focus on the timeline of the foreign forces withdraw from Afghanistan while the U.S. team will focus on a ceasefire and intra-Afghan dialogue.
“If the Taliban and the United States do not reach an agreement, there is a huge possibility that the talks will face a deadlock,” said Nazar Mohammad Motamein, a pro-Taliban political commentator.
The Afghan government has always said that intra-Afghan dialogue is the only way for peace agreement but the Taliban has so far denied to sit with Ghani’s government, calling it a puppet regime.
“We demand the U.S. and the Taliban to agree on an intra-Afghan dialogue in their seventh round of talks as the problem will only be solved this way,” said Ghafoor Ahmad Jawid, the Spokesperson for the High Peace Council.
This comes the U.S. officials have said that they will not withdraw from Afghanistan unless they are assured that Afghanistan cannot be a threat to Washington and its allies.
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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