Afghan Government, Taliban Agree On Doha As Venue For Peace Talks
This intra-Afghan dialogue, will be the first high-level meeting between the two sides after years of fighting and is a key clause of the agreement that the Taliban signed with the United States of America on February 29th in Doha.
By IAR Desk
Afghanistan’s government and the Islamist Taliban group have agreed that Doha will be the venue for the first meeting in their peace talks, both sides said on June 14, reported Reuters.
This intra-Afghan dialogue, will be the first high-level meeting between the two sides after years of fighting. It is a key clause of the agreement that the Taliban signed with the United States of America on February 29th this year, also in Doha.
According to the agreement the US would wind down its troops in Afghanistan to 8600 within 135 days of the signing of the agreement and would withdrew all troops within 14 months if the Taliban met its conditions of the agreement.
The talks had been facilitated by Qatar, whose capital Doha has also been housing the office of the Taliban since 2013.
No date has been announced for the meeting, but it is expected to take place after the two sides settle differences on the release by the Afghan government of 5,000 Taliban prisoners, which could be as soon as the end of next week. The release of prisoners by the Afghan government, which is holding thousands of Taliban militants in prisons, is also part of the US-Taliban peace deal.
President Ashraf Ghani’s government has so far released 3000 prisoners.
The government wants talks to begin as soon as possible but has issues with the release of a few hundred high-profile Taliban prisoners, a senior government official told Reuters.
The official said the government had offered an alternative prisoner release list to the Taliban.
The spokesman for the Afghan Presidential Palace, Sediq Sediqqi, said on Twitter that Doha had been agreed as the venue for the first talks but said no permanent venue had been agreed.
