News / Afghanistan

Countries meet to set date for Afghan-Taliban talks

Tuesday, 23 February 2016 11:15 AM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 23 February 2016 11:17 AM ]

This photo shows delegations from Afghanistan, Pakistan, the US and China convening in Kabul, Feb. 23, 2016. (By Reuters)

Representatives from the US, China, Pakistan and Afghanistan were meeting in Kabul Tuesday to discuss a date for the resumption of peace talks between with the Taliban militant group.

Delegates participating in the new round of the discussions “should give a date for the first direct peace talks,” deputy spokesman for Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah Javid Faisal said.

Afghan Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani said that the details of the first proposed meeting would be announced before the end of February.

“To end the conflict and bloodshed in the country, the government of Afghanistan once again calls on Taliban groups to take part in peace talks,” Rabbani said.

During the last round of the talks, which was held in Islamabad on February 6, the delegates agreed to work together in order to resume talks between the two sides and end their ongoing conflict.

Talks between Taliban and the Afghan government fell apart last summer in Pakistan after it was revealed that the militant group’s leader Mullah Mohammad Omar had been dead for more than two years.

Afghanistan is gripped by insecurity after about 15 years since the United States and its allies invaded the country as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror.

The 2001 invasion removed the Taliban from power, but many areas across the country still face violence and insecurity.

Many thousands of people have been killed in Afghanistan since 2001.The United Nations has said in a recent report that Afghan civilian causalities surpassed 11,000 in 2015, the highest number of casualties Afghanistan has witnessed in a single year since 2009.

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