Fresh bid set to bring Afghans to table for peace dealThe Taliban have refused to negotiate with President Ashraf Ghani, pictured at a United Nations conference on Afghanistan in 2018WASHINGTON - Rival Afghans will meet starting Sunday in Qatar, officials said, in a fresh attempt to make political headway as the United States seeks a peace deal with the Taliban within three months. The meeting comes after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo paid a previously unannounced visit last week to Kabul where he voiced hope for a peace deal with the Taliban "before September 1." The United States has nonetheless not interrupted its seventh round of talks with the Taliban in Doha that started on Saturday. Under a peace deal, the United States plans to pull its roughly 14,000 troops from Afghanistan. Zalmay Khalilzad, the US negotiator with the Taliban, said that dialogue among Afghans was an essential part of a peace deal.

Source: Bangkok Post July 01, 2019 21:22 UTC