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Taliban, US Set to Hold Crucial Round of Afghan Peace Talks

Ayaz Gul

   The United States and the Taliban are scheduled to hold crucial
   negotiations in Qatar early next week amid high expectations of a
   breakthrough in a nearly yearlong effort to end the war in Afghanistan.
   This would be the seventh round of talks in Doha, Qatar, where the
   insurgent group maintains an informal political office. The U.S. team
   is being led by Afghan-born American reconciliation
   envoyZalmayKhalilzad.
   The dialogue, which excludes the Afghan government, has focused on the
   withdrawal of American forces from the country in exchange for Taliban
   assurances that transnational terrorists would be not be allowed to use
   Afghan soil for attacks against other countries.
   U.S. and Taliban negotiators were expected to conclude an agreement
   covering the two issues in their last meeting in May, but the
   discussions stalled over the Taliban's refusal to cease hostilities and
   participate in an intra-Afghan peace dialogue until Washington
   announced a troop drawdown timetable.

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