Sixth Round Of U.S.-Taliban Talks in Doha to Begin Today

The U.S. and Taliban delegations will resume talks on Wednesday in Doha, the capital of Qatar to make a way for ending the long-term conflict in the war-weary country, Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban said in a tweet.

“We are expecting the meeting to start in the next two hours as the U.S. delegation has already arrived,” Mujahid has told Reuters.

Mujahid, meanwhile, said in a statement that the Head of the Taliban office in Qatar and deputy to the group’s leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar met with Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Lestari and her delegation on Tuesday and discussed the Afghan peace process.

The U.S. officials have not made a comment on the report.

Earlier, the negotiations between the Taliban’s political chief Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar and a U.S. negotiating team led by special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad was held in Doha in March 2019, where the two sides had “agreed in a draft” on the issues of counter-terrorism assurances and troop pullout from Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, Khalilzad visited Islamabad from April 29 to 30 where he requested and received support for the need to accelerate intra-Afghan dialogue as well as a reduction in violence.

During his two-day visit, Khalilzad met with Pakistani officials including Pakistan Foreign Secretary Sohail Mahmood and the country’s Chief of Army Staff Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa and discussed the Afghan peace process.

“Pakistan supports efforts to accelerate intra-Afghan dialogue and negotiations and is committed to helping reduce violence in Afghanistan. Everyone I saw recognizes the benefits peace will bring to the region,” Khalilzad said in a tweet on Tuesday.

“I am also encouraged by the role Pakistan wants to play in building regional consensus in support of the Afghan peace process. The time to implement has come,” Khalilzad tweeted.