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KABUL: Former President Hamid Karzai and a group of senior Ulema held a friendly meeting with US Special Envoy for Afghanistan’s Reconciliation, Zalmay Khalilzad, and Lisa Curtis, Deputy Assistant to U.S. President at the National Security Council.
While extending strong support to Ambassador Khalilzad, the participants spoke of total Afghan unity for peace and urged genuine and serious action by US in the peace process.
Mr. Khalilzad has arrived in Kabul in an attempt to breathe new life into efforts to end the war in Afghanistan, the US State Department has said.
His next stop will be Doha, where he is due to rejoin talks with Taliban negotiators to discuss steps that could lead to a ceasefire and a settlement to the war in, according to a State Department statement.
“Ambassador Khalilzad will rejoin talks with the Taliban to discuss steps that could lead to intra-Afghan negotiations and a peaceful settlement of the war, specifically a reduction in violence that leads to a ceasefire,” the statement said.
In September, President Donald Trump abruptly called off the year-long peace talks between US and Taliban Qatar-based members that nothing was left for an agreement. In that time he said that Taliban don’t desire for peace. However, during a surprise visit to Bigram Airfield last week, Trump said the Taliban “wants to make a deal.”
But the group later said it was “way too early” to speak of resuming direct talks with Washington.
“We will not announce any ceasefire before a deal with the US, and secondly we will not agree to hold any meetings with the Afghan government before that,” a senior Taliban official told Reuters News Agency.
