Zalmai Khalilzad to visit Qatar seeking Taliban’s final decision on reducing violence

A credible source at the US Embassy Kabul says the United States wants to know whether the Taliban are willing to reduce violence because of the peace agreement; therefore, the US Special Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad is going to travel to Qatar in order to know the Taliban’s final decision in the matter.

Abdul Shokor Motmayen, former head of the National Olympic Committee during the Taliban regime, says that the Taliban military council has agreed to reduce violence and talks in this regard, will resume as soon as Khalilzad’s trip to Qatar where a peace agreement will be signed.

The ceasefire demanded by the Afghan government has not been the focus of the peace talks so far. The reduction of violence by the Taliban means to reduce the number of attacks in major Afghan cities, highways, and civilians.

Najia Anwari, the spokesperson of State Ministry for Peace, says that they are trying to consolidate and strengthen national and international harmony about peace.

Meanwhile, some experts are concerned about the consequences of the Iran-US confrontation, particularly the killing of Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, over the Afghan peace process. They believe that there are possibilities in the escalation of violence in Afghanistan.

Rahmatullah Bezhanpor, a political activist, says that Iran will most probably manipulate its influence over the Taliban leaders to undermine the US-led peace process in Afghanistan.

Peace talks between US and Taliban representatives were suspended nearly a month ago. Zalmai Khalilzad further emphasized that the Afghan peace process has reached a sensitive phase and called the halt a good opportunity for Taliban representatives to dig deep the matter of ceasefire, violence reduction and intra-Afghan talks, with their leadership.