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KABUL: After nearly 20 years of conflict in Afghanistan, the warring parties meet face-to-face at the negotiating table in the Qatari capital, Doha.
One of the key players in the Afghan peace process has been Afghan-born American diplomat Zalmay Khalilzad, who has led the efforts to achieve peace in Afghanistan on behalf of the United States since September 2018.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad says for many years there has been an effort to end the war in Afghanistan in an agreement broadly supported in Afghanistan as a roadmap. “Also in an agreement Afghanistan never again is a threat to international community, of course to the United States in particularly.”
For the first time in these 20 years, negotiating teams from Kabul and Taliban are meeting to establish contacting group to discuss the agenda and next step in the negotiation, he said which believes it is a historic moment for Afghanistan and also a moment of hope.
“Negotiations are taking place to build trust-building and also reduce violence as we expecting, and the negotiations are taking place to overcome differences that resulted the cause for fight and also to find a formula to resolve those differences,” he said.
“The formal doesn’t mean the Taliban should change their ideology or the Kabul do rather to agree on a political agreement workable and implementable.”
This is as the Afghan government’s negotiating delegation says they are optimistic in a ceasefire agreement with their Taliban interlocutors.
The two negotiating teams have not yet held official meetings. Taliban side has only focused on the technical issues.
