US Special Envoy for Afghan reconciliation Zalmai Khalilzad briefed Afghan government leadership, including President Ashraf Ghani, on his latest talks with Taliban representatives and Pakistani officials, Presidential palace said in a statement on Saturday.
The statement reads that Khalilzad told the Afghan leadership that great progress has not been made in this round of talks with Taliban, hoping that both sides will reach a result.
According to the statement, Khalilzad also briefed President Ghani on is trip to the neighboring Pakistan, and said that beside discussions with Taliban he also talk with Pakistani officials about the situation of Afghan refugees based.
This comes as reports on Friday said that peace Taliban’s turbulent negotiations with the United States on a peace deal have ground to a halt over differences on how to reduce insurgent violence.
The latest standoff in the peace process, being hosted by Qatar, comes amid a sharp increase in Taliban attacks on US-backed Afghan government forces over the past week despite a very harsh winter. The violence has killed scores of combatants on both sides and caused more civilian casualties across Afghanistan.
Suhail Shaheen, who speaks for the Taliban’s negotiating team, told VOA on Friday that the US side was to be blamed for the latest challenges facing the talks.
“We agree to provide a secure environment during the days of the signing of the agreement, but the Americans put forward do-more demands,” Shaheen said. “This has created hurdles in the process.”
Shaheen was indirectly referring to a Taliban proposal of scaling back insurgent operations for one week in order to sign the long-anticipated agreement with the US. The two adversaries have negotiated the document over the past year to end the 18-year-old Afghan war, America’s longest.
No US reaction was immediately available to Friday’s Taliban assertions about the fate of negotiations.
Washington has been demanding the insurgent group commit to a “significant and lasting” reduction in violence before the peace deal is signed. But the Taliban are opposed to extending their weeklong offer of reduction in insurgent hostilities.
The US-Taliban peace agreement, if signed, would allow about 13,000 American troops stationed in Afghanistan to gradually withdraw from the country. It would also open direct Taliban-Afghan negotiations to discuss a nationwide cease-fire and political power-sharing.
Alice Wells, a senior Trump administration diplomat for the region, told reporters in Washington last week that US chief negotiator Zalmay Khalilzad and his team were “encouraging the Taliban to make a commitment to a reduction in violence that would all
