Senior Taliban Members Meet With US, Qatari Officials On Peace Talks - Movement Spokesman

Senior Taliban Members Meet with US, Qatari Officials on Peace Talks - Movement Spokesman

US Special Representative for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad and Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani have met with senior Taliban members and negotiators, including the movement's co-founder, and discussed further steps in the Afghan peace process, Taliban Spokesman Suhail Shaheen has said

KABUL (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th February, 2020) US Special Representative for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad and Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani have met with senior Taliban members and negotiators, including the movement's co-founder, and discussed further steps in the Afghan peace process, Taliban Spokesman Suhail Shaheen has said.

According to the spokesman, Mullah Abdul Ghani Beradar, the co-founder of the Afghan movement, who is also known as Mullah Brother Akhund; Mullah Mohammad Fazil Mazloom, the Taliban's chief negotiator for US talks; Mullah Khairullah Khairkhwah, a senior Taliban member; and Taliban's former information minister, Mullah Amir Khan Muttiqi participated in the meeting on Sunday.

"The Deputy Minister of Political Affairs of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan [Taliban], Mullah Beradar Akhund, Mullah Mohammad Fazil Mazloom, Mullah Khairullah Khairkhwah, Mullah Amir Khan Muttiqi, Foreign Minister of Qatar and Zalmay Khalilzad had a meeting on the outcome of the talks and discussed further steps," Shaheen tweeted.

Taliban's representatives have been regularly meeting with US officials in Qatar's Doha to negotiate a peace deal that would ensure the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan in exchange for the movement's guarantee that the country would not become a safe haven for terrorists. Khalilzad previously met senior members of the movement in mid-January.