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US-Brokered Afghan Peace Talks to Begin Saturday

Ayaz Gul

   ISLAMABAD - Afghanistan's warring factions have announced they will
   begin their first direct peace talks Saturday in Qatar to negotiate a
   political settlement to the country's long conflict.

   The landmark dialogue, brokered by the United States, is officially
   known as intra-Afghan negotiations. An Afghan government-appointed team
   of negotiators and interlocutors from the Taliban insurgency will sit
   at the negotiating table in Doha, the Qatari capital, both parties
   announced Thursday.

   In Washington, U.S. President Donald Trump hailed progress in the
   otherwise troubled Afghan peace process as an outcome of his
   administration's "bold diplomatic effort" to help end nearly two
   decades of war in the South Asian nation.

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