U.S., Taliban Peace Talks Kick Off in Qatar

The U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad met Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, Head of Taliban’s Qatar office in Doha, and held a fresh round of peace talks.  

The United States and the Taliban are to sit down for what could be the highest level of negotiations yet in the Qatari capital, Doha, aimed at finding a solution to the nearly two decades of war in Afghanistan.

“Just finished a working lunch with Mullah Beradar and his team. First time we’ve met. Now moving on to talks,” Khalilzad said in a tweet.

The talks are expected to continue for four days and will focus on a ceasefire to end America’s longest war and the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan, the Taliban sources said. 

Mullah Baradar will be leading the Taliban delegation in talks with Khalilzad. Omar Daudzai, Head of High Peace Council’s Secretariat said that Baradar has “intellectual independence” and that expected to take decisions soon enough.

Earlier today, Khalilzad tweeted that he has arrived in Doha to meet with the Taliban delegation and discuss peace.  

“Appreciate Qatar for hosting & Pakistan in facilitating travel. Now the work begins in earnest,” he said.

The Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), however, said that some Taliban members are in the UN blacklist and that cannot travel, calling on Doha and Islamabad to give clarification on their travel to the regional countries.

“This is the issue that Qatar and Pakistan should clarify. With what kind of documents they [the Taliban members] have traveled? some of them are in the UN blacklist and cannot travel,” said Sebghatullah Ahmadi, a spokesman of MoFA.  

This comes as the U.S. and the Taliban have so far held at least four rounds of talks without the presence of the Afghan government’s representative. However, Kabul hopes that this round of talks could facilitate its direct talks with the Taliban.