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Qatar to Host Intra-Afghan Peace Talks

Ayaz Gul

   ISLAMABAD - Afghanistan's warring sides have agreed to open
   long-awaited peace talks in Qatar, possibly later this month, to
   negotiate a sustainable cease-fire and political settlement to years of
   conflict in Afghanistan.
   A spokesman for the Taliban insurgency on Sunday confirmed to VOA the
   breakthrough development but did not say when will the dialogue begin.
   An Afghan government source told VOA that President Ashraf Ghani has
   accepted a Qatari government proposal for hosting the intra-Afghan
   talks in Doha, the gulf state's capital, where the Islamist Taliban
   maintains its political office.

   "The Afghan government has only agreed for a first meeting to take
   place in Doha, there has not been any agreement yet on the venue of the
   direct talks," Ghani's spokesman Sediq Sediqqi tweeted Sunday.

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