Taliban Confirm Talks With U.S. Special Envoy

Date: 14 October 2018 - 21:33

News ID: ۵۸۵۰۷

KABUL (Dispatches) – The Taliban have confirmed that their leaders had held talks with the U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad, in Qatar's capital Doha on Friday, said a statement of the armed group posted on its website on Sunday.
The Taliban delegation, according to the statement includes chief of political office in Doha Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai, deputy head Mawlawi Abdul Salam Hanafi, office members Shahabuddin Delawar, Qari Deen Mohammad Hanif, Mohammad Zahid Ahmadzi and Mohammad Suhil Shaheen.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Majahid who posted the statement on the armed group's website, asserted that the representatives the ousted Taliban regime in the meeting "described the presence of foreign forces in Afghanistan as the main obstacle in achieving peace" and demanded the withdrawal of foreign forces from the country.
"Keeping that in mind, efforts must be made towards a true and intra-Afghan solution. At the end both sides agreed to continue holding meetings in the future," the statement added.
The Afghan-born U.S. diplomat Khalilzad after touring Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and meeting Taliban leaders visited Kabul on Saturday and held talks with leaders and politicians within and outside the government.
At the same time, a bomb attack at an election rally in northeastern Afghanistan claimed the lives of over a dozen people and left above 30 wounded.
Officials have put the number of fatalities at 13 but medics say the toll could rise even higher.
They said the explosion occurred when a motorbike - laden with explosives - went off near the gathering of supporters of a female election candidate in the northeastern province of Takhar. Among the victims were both civilians and security forces.
A senior member of the Taliban said Khalilzad had asked the Taliban leadership, based in the Qatari capital Doha, to declare a ceasefire in Afghanistan during upcoming parliamentary polls.
"Both sides discuss prospects of peace and the U.S presence in Afghanistan,” said another Taliban official, requesting anonymity.
In exchange, the Taliban wants the Afghan government to release its militants from jails across the country and the swift removal of foreign forces fighting alongside Afghan soldiers.
Political analysts in Kabul said both sides will have to make concessions for the talks to succeed.