By RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan August 29, 2019 As U.S. and Taliban officials look to apparently seal a historic deal to end the 18-year Afghan conflict, leaders of the extremist militant group are reviewing the proposed agreement at an undisclosed location along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. A senior Taliban commander in Pakistan told the AFP news
Ayaz Gul VOA News August 26, 2019 ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN – With a draft peace agreement between the United States and the Afghan Taliban circulating after 10 months of negotiations, the insurgent group is pushing a new media campaign boasting about what it describes as the “success” of its past strict Islamic rule. The Taliban was
Michael Hughes: In 2003, then-U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Zalmay Khalilzad, with the full backing of the CIA, rendered Afghanistan’s Loya Jirga to a farce by strong-arming aside King Zahir Shah and anointing as president State Department darling Hamid Karzai. Now Zalmay, as special U.S. envoy, is once again guilty of foreign election interference
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty August 2, 2019 The United States is ready to withdraw a large number of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in exchange for Taliban guarantees to start direct negotiations with Kabul on ending the nearly 18-year war in Afghanistan, U.S. media reported on August 1. The Washington Post and CNN cited unnamed sources
By RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan August 1, 2019 KABUL — The U.S. peace envoy seeking to negotiate an end to the nearly 18-year war in Afghanistan said peace negotiations between Kabul and the Taliban will determine whether the presidential election slated for September 28 is held. In an interview with RFE/RL in the Afghan capital
Ayaz Gul VOA News July 31, 2019 ISLAMABAD – The Taliban says it is hopeful an agreement will be reached with the United States to end the 18-year-old war in Afghanistan when the two adversaries meet later this week in Qatar for a crucial round of peace negotiations. The two sides have worked hard for
Tolo News: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan who is on a three-day visit in Washington said that he will meet with the Taliban after returning to Islamabad and that he will get the group to the negotiation table with the Afghan government. “Taliban delegation wanted to meet me few months back… It is because I always maintained
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty July 22, 2019 U.S. President Donald Trump has held out the possibility of restoring aid to Pakistan as Islamabad is “helping us a lot now” to find a way out of the war in neighboring Afghanistan. Speaking after a meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on July 22, Trump said
Tolo News: Pakistan’s former ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani, says the Taliban does not believe in elections and that the group is seeking to take over Afghanistan by force once the foreign forces leave the country as part of a peace deal. Haqqani said the real peace in Afghanistan will come “when Pakistan’s ISI stops interfering
Ayaz Gul VOA News July 22, 2019 ISLAMABAD – Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that in his meeting with President Donald Trump on Monday he will stress the need for political resolution to the protracted war in Afghanistan. Khan, who is in the U.S. on a three-day official visit in a bid to