Afghanistan Times
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KABUL: US Special Envoy for Afghanistan Reconciliation, Zalmay Khalilzad held a meeting with Mark Milley, the Chairman of Joint Chief of Staff, in which they discussed important issues related to Afghanistan including reduction of conflicts and violence in the country.
“We agreed that a political settlement that safeguards the homeland from terrorist threats, allows us to reduce the burden of war & protects two decades of progress in Afghanistan is in our national interest,” Khalilzad wrote on Twitter on Sunday.
Khalilzad added that Milley knew enough about Afghanistan and issues related to the war-torn country.
In September 2018, Khalilzad was appointed as Washington’s special envoy for Afghanistan’s peace affairs by US President Donald Trump. He had held nine rounds of peace talks with the Taliban representatives in Qatar. Both sides were close to reach a political settlement but Trump abruptly called off the negations, following a Taliban attack conducted in early September this year in Kabul, in which 12 people including an American soldier were killed.
Later on, Trump accused the Taliban of not being interested in peace and stability in Afghanistan, saying that he cancelled the talks after the militants rejected a ceasefire offer.
Meanwhile, Trump once again emphasized on the withdrawal of the US troops from Afghanistan.
The government of Afghanistan has said that peace talks would be kicked off after the announcement of presidential election’s results.
