No Agreement Reached at US-Taliban Talks in Qatar

TEHRAN (defapress)- A Taliban negotiating team and US delegates, who continue their talks in Doha, have not yet reached any common understanding or agreed on a joint document, Taliban Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid stated on Sunday.

News ID: 75977

Date: 04 March 2019 - 15:00

"The current round of talks in Doha are advancing on a step-by-step basis. As the issue at hand is immensely crucial and delicate, its progression is taking place with that much care and vigilance," Mujahid wrote on Twitter, RIA Novosti reported.

"The talks during January saw an agreement regarding withdrawal of occupying forces and preventing Afghanistan from being used against others, but this round of talks are about the details and nature of these two issues. It should be mentioned that no understanding has so far been reached about any agreement or document", he noted.

The new round of the US-Taliban talks kicked off in Doha on February 25. Three days later, US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad described the talks as productive, adding that the sides would take the next two days for internal deliberations and resume talks on Saturday.

The previous round of the US-Taliban talks in January resulted in a framework for a future agreement under which the radical movement is ready to guarantee it will not harbor al-Qaeda terrorists in Afghanistan in return for ending US military presence in the country.

The United States and the Taliban movement have been engaged in talks on the possible withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan.

A State Department Spokesperson stated in February that no timeline for a possible reduction of US troop levels in Afghanistan had been agreed yet with the central government.

Meanwhile, the Afghan peace process and prospects for resuming a direct dialogue between the Taliban movement and the Afghan government are being discussed on a number of platforms.

One such format was the intra-Afghan conference in Moscow on February 5-6. It was attended by representatives of various Afghan political parties and movements, including the Taliban. Prior to that, the Russian capital also hosted an intra-Afghan meeting in November, which brought together representatives of regional states, and delegations from the Taliban's political office in Doha and the Afghan High Peace Council.

Afghanistan has long been destabilized by the conflict between the Taliban and the Afghan authorities, exacerbated by the activities of various terrorist groups, including the Daesh terrorist group.

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