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Kabul: A Taliban delegation, led by Abdul Ghani Baradar, have left Qatar for Indonesia on Friday morning, the militant movement’s mouthpiece said.
A Taliban Spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, in a brief statement said that at the head of an eight-member team, Mullah Baradar would hold talks with Indonesian officials.
The negotiations between the two sides would largely revolve around bolstering political relations, peace efforts and cooperation on Afghanistan’s future, he added.
The visit comes ahead of the eighth round of peace parleys between the Taliban and the United States in Doha.
US special envoy for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad has recently said he had ‘productive discussions’ with government leaders “on where they are on the Afghan peace process.”
Khalilzad, who arrived in Kabul two days ahead of his next and eighth round of talks with Taliban representatives in Qatar, was scheduled to probably fly to Doha on Friday, but the Afghan government has requested him to stay for some time in Kabul.
The request from the Kabul government comes after US President Donald Trump recently made surprising comments about Afghanistan.
During a White House press conference along with Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, Trump said Afghanistan “would be wiped off the face of the Earth” if he wanted to win the war
The seventh round of US-Taliban talks ended on July 9 in Qatari capital of Doha, where an all-Afghan conference laid out a roadmap for potential peace in Afghanistan.
