Talks between Taliban and the Afghan government would possibly take place in two months, reliable sources said on Sunday.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, one source told Pajhwok Afghan News intra-Afghan talks might happen after the signing of a US-Taliban peace deal.
Germany’s special representative for Afghanistan Markus Potzel, currently in Kabul, has initiated meetings with some figures on the issue.
Potzel met former Afghan envoy to Pakistan Hazrat Omar Zakhelwal, former deputy foreign minister Hikmat Khalil Karzai and a number of political figures for consultations on intra-Afghan dialogue.
As peace efforts gain momentum, UN Secretary-General Special Representative Tadamachi Yamamoto met US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and representatives of European Union on Friday.
Earlier, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said Afghanistan and Pakistan “need stability,” and good progress had been made as the Taliban were ready for reduction in violence.
American and Taliban negotiators discussed the signing of a potential peace agreement, a spokesman for the rebel movement said on Friday.
Suhail Shaheen tweeted the two sides were meeting in Qatar for what he called “fruitful discussions” that would go on for several days.
He said Taliban negotiators, led by Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, had discussed the issue with their US counterparts on Wednesday as well.
Presidential spokesman Sediq Sediqi told a press conference in Kabul that a ceasefire and peace with dignity were the demands of the Afghan government and people.
He hoped the Taliban, after consultations with their elders, would arrive at an agreement on peace talks with the Afghan government.
This comes a Taliban’s Qatar office head Mullah Baradar recently said that Afghans can only reach peace after the withdrawal of US forces.
“The war will end when the US withdraws from Afghanistan,” Mullah Baradar told Frontline in a Jan. 6 interview in Qatar.
“[T]he Americans made a huge mistake by coming to Afghanistan and starting this war in Afghanistan.
“Because their main goal was just one person — Osama bin Laden — and he is now gone. …We are obliged, as it is our country, to defend it with our lives.”
