[NEWS] U.S., Taliban at ‘threshold’ of Afghan agreement: U.S. official – Loganspace AI

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[NEWS] U.S., Taliban at ‘threshold’ of Afghan agreement: U.S. official – Loganspace AI


KABUL (Reuters) – U.S. and Taliban negotiators are discontinuance to an agreement that would decrease fighting and allow elephantine peace talks among Afghans, a prime U.S. dependable acknowledged on Sunday, a day after rebel forces stormed the strategic northern city of Kunduz.

FILE PHOTO: U.S. envoy for peace in Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad speaks all the design through a debate at Tolo TV channel in Kabul, Afghanistan April 28, 2019. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani/File Photograph

Zalmay Khalilzad, the Afghan-born U.S. diplomat overseeing negotiations for Washington, acknowledged he would jog to the Afghan capital of Kabul on Sunday for consultations after wrapping up the ninth spherical of talks with Taliban officials in Qatar.

“We are on the brink of an agreement that will decrease violence and beginning the door for Afghans to take a seat together to negotiate an honorable and sustainable peace and a unified, sovereign Afghanistan that does no longer threaten the United States, its allies, or any other country,” he acknowledged in a Twitter post.

The observation came a day after a predominant display mask of energy by plenty of of Taliban fighters who overran parts of Kunduz, a city they’ve twice advance discontinuance to taking in fresh years, atmosphere off a day of gunbattles and air strikes to pressure them abet.

Khalilzad gave no crucial components of the deal, which is predicted to gaze hundreds of U.S. troops withdrawn from Afghanistan in substitute for guarantees by the Taliban no longer to allow the country to be frail as a outrageous for militant assaults in a international country.

“We can now discuss these tendencies with our have leadership, whereas Zalmay Khalilzad is presupposed to head to Kabul and elaborate the Afghan leadership in regards to the choices made in the peace talks,” acknowledged a senior Taliban leader aware of the talks.

The agreement would no longer by itself kill the fighting between the Taliban and Afghan safety forces, however would allow the beginning up of so-known as “intra-Afghan” peace talks, which shall be expected to be held in the Norwegian capital of Oslo.

However it completely became no longer clear whether the Taliban would comply with chat straight with the Western-backed executive of President Ashraf Ghani, which they take into story an illegitimate international-imposed regime.

Some Taliban officials have acknowledged they would easiest comply with test with Afghan officials in a non-public capability, no longer as representatives of the declare, and they also continue to be opposed to presidential elections scheduled for Sept. 28.

It became additionally unclear whether the agreement would veil the elephantine withdrawal of all 14,500 U.S. troops from Afghanistan or how lengthy a pullout would obtain.

Extra than 20,000 international troops are in the country, most serving as phase of a NATO-led mission to coach and support Afghan forces. Thousands of U.S. troops are additionally engaged in a separate counter-terrorism mission fighting militant groups similar to Islamic Inform and Al Qaeda.

Suicide bombings and combat operations have persevered all the design during the talks and the fighting in Kunduz underlined the vulnerability of gigantic parts of Afghanistan, where the Taliban adjust more territory than at any time since being overthrown by a U.S.-led campaign in 2001.

Taliban fighters, who adjust gigantic parts of the surrounding nation-declare, stormed town in the early hours of Saturday, seizing gigantic areas, at the side of a health facility, sooner than Afghan safety forces backed by air strikes pushed them abet.

Reporting by James Mackenzie, Jibran Ahmad in Peshawar; Editing by Clarence Fernandez

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