A credible source at the US Embassy in Kabul says the United States wants to know whether the Taliban are willing to reduce violence because of the peace agreement; therefore, the US Special Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad is going to travel to Qatar in order to know the Taliban’s final decision in this regard.
Abdul Shokor Motmayen, head of the National Olympic Committee during the Taliban regime, says that the Taliban military council has agreed to reduction in violence and further discussions on the issue is expected to continue as Khalilzad is poised to make his next trip to Qatar where a peace agreement will be signed.
The ceasefire demanded by the Afghan government has not been the focus of the peace talks so far. The reduction of violence by the Taliban means to reduce the number of attacks in major Afghan cities, highways, and civilians.
Najia Anwari, the spokesperson for State Ministry for Peace Affairs, says that they are trying to consolidate and strengthen national and international consensus over peace in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, some experts are concerned about the consequences of the Iran-US confrontation, particularly the killing of Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, over the Afghan peace process. They believe that there are possibilities for the escalation of violence in Afghanistan.
Rahmatullah Bezhanpor, a political activist, says that Iran will most probably use its influence over the Taliban leaders to undermine the US-led peace process in Afghanistan.
