The United States and the Taliban said Saturday they had made substantial headway in negotiations to end the 17-year US war in Afghanistan, although sticking points remained. We made significant progress on vital issues,” Khalilzad wrote on Twitter. The length and apparent breadth of the Taliban talks are unprecedented, signaling that both the United States and the Taliban see a path forward. In a sign of the seriousness, the Taliban appointed a co-founder of the hardline Islamic movement as its Qatar-based negotiator with the United States — Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. He was arrested in Pakistan in 2010 but released in October as the United States stepped up diplomacy.

Source: Egypt Independent January 27, 2019 14:03 UTC