Doha [Qatar], July 2: The Taliban and Afghanistan rivals are “set to meet” on Sunday in Doha in a fresh bid to make a political headway as the US seeks a peace agreement within three months with Taliban.
The international efforts to convince warring Afghanis to come under the negotiation table comes as the Taliban, who has been launching attacks in weat-backed Kabul government, killed some 16 people in its latest attack in the capital, according to Dawn news reports.
United States special representative for Afghan reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad has been holding several rounds of Afghan peace talks with the insurgent group in Qatar, aimed at putting an end to the 18-year-long Afghan war and crisis.
Suhail Shaheen, the Taliban spokesperson in Qatar, said, ” … we will begin the talks to the Afghan sides, but we will not talk to the Kabul administration as a government.”
In an interview, US President Donald Trump said he seeks to withdraw American forces from Afghanistan but will leave a heavy “intelligence presence” in the nation to counteract what he called as the “Havard of terrorist”.
The Taliban have reiterated their refusal to holding direct talks with President Ashraf Ghani-led Afghanistan government, and an earlier attempt to bring both under a negotiation table in April collapsed in Doha in a spat over attendees.
In a statement released on Monday by Washington, German special envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan, Markus Potzel said the Afghans will “participate only in their personal capacity and on an equal footing.”
He said, “Afghanistan stands at a critical moment of opportunity for progress towards peace.” He added, “An essential component of any process leading to this objective will be direct engagement between Afghans.”
But, the Taliban insisted they would not hold talks with the Afghan government.