Doha : Delegations from the Afghan government and the Taliban said in a joint statement on Sunday that they will meet again and plan to expedite peace negotiations after two days of inconclusive talks in Doha, Al Jazeera has learned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The negotiators from the rival sides, who have been in Doha since Saturday, said \u201cthe two sides committed to continue negotiations at a high level until a settlement is reached\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Al Jazeera\u2019s \u201creported A hotly contested draft was put forth by both sides where they finally agreed to talk to each other and to speed up talks. They agreed that the level of negotiations will be expedited.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For months, the two sides have been meeting intermittently in the Qatari capital, but have achieved little if any notable success. The discussions appear to have lost momentum as the Taliban fighters have made enormous gains on the battlefield.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Senior representatives of the Kabul government, including the head of the High Council for National Reconciliation, Abdullah Abdullah, flew in for two days of intensive talks as US forces are about to complete their troops\u2019 pullout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ahead of the second day of talks, the Taliban\u2019s Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhundzada had said \u201cthe Islamic emirate strenuously favours a political settlement\u201d despite the groups lightning victories on the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the Qatari facilitator of the talks said at the end of the two days that the sides had merely agreed to \u201cwork to prevent civilian casualties\u201d, far short of previously agreed ceasefires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe two sides agreed to continue negotiations at a high level until a settlement is reached. For this purpose, they will meet again next week,\u201d said Qatar\u2019s counterterrorism envoy Mutlaq al-Qahtani, who oversees the Doha talks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taliban leader Akhundzada has said his group remained committed to forging a solution to end the war but slammed the group\u2019s opponents for \u201cwasting time\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Taliban capitalised on the last stages of the withdrawal of US and other foreign troops from Afghanistan to launch a series of lightning offensives across the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The group is now believed to control roughly half of the nation\u2019s 400 districts, several important border crossings, and has laid siege to a string of vital provincial capitals..<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But questions remain over how much control the Taliban\u2019s leaders have over commanders on the ground, and whether they will be able to convince them to abide by a potential agreement if signed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite coming days ahead of the Eid holiday, the Taliban leader\u2019s statement notably made no mention of a formal call for a ceasefire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over the years, the Taliban has announced a series of short truces during Islamic holidays, initially spurring hopes for a larger reduction of violence. However, the group has been criticised for using the temporary ceasefires to resupply and reinforce their fighters, allowing them to launch withering onslaughts on Afghanistan\u2019s security forces once the truce expires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaking from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera\u2019s Rosalind Jordan said: \u201cThe US understanding has always been that something of this magnitude to reach a comprehensive peace deal between the Taliban and the civilian-led government in Kabul is going to take time and will be difficult. That is why you see all these repeated rounds of talks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She added that although US troops left Afghanistan earlier this month, the country remained an important foreign policy issue for the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen it comes to the short-term foreign policy of the United States, it is still very much concerned and Afghanistan is very much a central part of it,\u201d she explained, added that US delegations have been visiting neighbouring countries to talk about ways they can support Afghanistan thrive and move away from the prospects of civil war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The US-led military coalition has been on the ground in Afghanistan for nearly two decades following an invasion launched following the September 11, 2001 attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fears are growing that Afghan forces will be overwhelmed without vital coalition air support, allowing for a complete Taliban military takeover or the start of a multi-sided civil war in a country awash with weapons following nearly four decades of fighting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Doha : Delegations from the Afghan government and the Taliban said in a joint statement on Sunday that they will meet again and plan to expedite peace negotiations after two days of inconclusive talks in Doha, Al Jazeera has learned. The negotiators from the rival sides, who have been in Doha since Saturday, said \u201cthe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":58458,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zameenihaqaiq.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zameenihaqaiq.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zameenihaqaiq.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zameenihaqaiq.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zameenihaqaiq.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/zameenihaqaiq.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zameenihaqaiq.com\/test\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zameenihaqaiq.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zameenihaqaiq.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zameenihaqaiq.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}