Khalilzad starts new tour for “practical next steps” in Afghan peace

US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad has started a new trip to Qatar, Pakistan, and Afghanistan on the Afghan peace process.

The US Department of State said in a statement that Khalilzad left Washington on June 5 for travel to Doha, Islamabad, and Kabul.

“The primary focus of Ambassador Khalilzad’s trip is to obtain agreement between the Afghan parties on the practical next steps necessary for a smooth start to intra-Afghan negotiations,” the statement said.

In his last stop in Kabul, Khalilzad would review the implementation of all commitments in the US-Taliban agreement and with all parties as well as the US-Afghanistan Joint Declaration, “specifically reduced violence and prisoner releases.”

It comes as the US forces conducted two airstrikes on June 4 against the Taliban militants to disrupt coordinated attacks on the Afghan National Security and Defence Forces’ checkpoints, Col. Sonny Leggett, a USFOR-A spokesman said in a tweet.

“Overnight, USFOR-A conducted an airstrike against 25 armed Taliban fighters executing a coordinated attack on an ANDSF checkpoint in Farah Province. This afternoon, USFOR-A conducted a strike on Taliban fighters attacking an ANDSF checkpoint in Kandahar Province,” Leggett said.

He said that the attacks were the first US airstrikes against the militant group since the start of the Eid ceasefire.

In accordance with the U.S.-Taliban agreement “We reiterate: All sides must reduce violence to allow the peace process to take hold. These were the 1st US airstrikes against TB since the start of the Eid ceasefire,” Leggett tweeted.