[NEWS] U.S., Taliban close to deal as fighting intensifies – Loganspace AI

KABUL (Reuters) – U.S. and Taliban negotiators are in terms of a deal to prick struggling with and enable elephantine peace talks amongst Afghans, a high U.S. expert said on Sunday, as rebel forces attacked a 2nd northern metropolis.

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

“We are on the threshold of an settlement that will prick violence and originate the door for Afghans to sit down down together to barter an honorable and sustainable peace and a unified, sovereign Afghanistan that does now not threaten the US, its allies, or any quite a lot of country,” he said in a Twitter post.

The order came as Taliban warring parties attacked Pul-e Khumri, in the northern province of Baghlan, appropriate a day after a prime present of energy by quite a lot of of warring parties who overran aspects of the strategic metropolis of Kunduz.

Whereas Kunduz turned into as soon as easy after clearance operations that had driven out insurgents, inner ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said, warring parties had taken up positions in two areas of Pul-e Khumri and had been struggling with Afghan safety forces.

“The final metropolis is closed,” said Safdar Muhsini, head of the Baghlan provincial council. “If the central authorities does now not purchase like a flash circulate, the explain would perchance rep worse.”

With talks in Doha in terms of wrapping up, primarily the most smartly-liked struggling with in Afghanistan underlined the Taliban’s apparent resolution to enter any deal from a plight of energy on the battlefield.

Khalilzad gave no major aspects of the deal, which is anticipated to sight thousands of U.S. troops withdrawn from Afghanistan in alternate for guarantees by the Taliban now to now not enable the country to be extinct as a infamous for militant attacks in one other country.

Suhail Shaheen, a spokesman for the Taliban’s political office in Doha, said each facets had been in discussions to finalize technical factors after having efficiently done the present round of talks.

“We are on the verge of ending the invasion and reaching a still solution for Afghanistan,” Shaheen said on Twitter.

The settlement would now not by itself cease the struggling with between the Taliban and Afghan safety forces, but would enable the initiating of so-known as “intra-Afghan” peace talks, which are anticipated to be held in the Norwegian capital of Oslo.

Nonetheless it absolutely turned into as soon as now not optimistic whether or now not the Taliban would agree to say immediately with the Western-backed authorities of President Ashraf Ghani, which they deem an illegitimate international-imposed regime.

Some Taliban officials glean said they would perchance finest agree to hunt the advice of with Afghan officials in a interior most skill, now not as representatives of the remark, and so that they continue to be in opposition to presidential elections scheduled for Sept. 28.

It turned into as soon as furthermore unclear whether or now not the settlement would quilt the elephantine withdrawal of all 14,500 U.S. troops from Afghanistan or how prolonged a pullout would purchase.

Larger than 20,000 international troops are in the country, most serving as segment of a NATO-led mission to educate and relief Afghan forces. Hundreds of U.S. troops are furthermore engaged in a separate counter-terrorism mission struggling with militant teams much like Islamic Order and Al Qaeda.

Suicide bombings and fight operations glean continued sooner or later of the talks and the struggling with in the north underlined the vulnerability of super aspects of Afghanistan, the build the Taliban administration more territory than at any time since being overthrown by a U.S.-led marketing campaign in 2001.