Yesterday, the Taliban said that the US special envoy to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad held a meeting in Doha with the head of the new Taliban team, which is scheduled to enter peace talks with a team of the Afghan government.
Taliban spokesman Dr. Muhammad Naeem said in a statement posted on Twitter that the head of the movement’s political bureau, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, and the new head of the Taliban team, Abdul Hakim Haqqani, met in Doha with Khalilzad. “Issues related to the release of prisoners and the immediate start of talks between Afghans were discussed, “.
The negotiations start in Doha, the fruit of an agreement between Washington and the Taliban, after the release of the last batch of about six of the 5,000 Taliban prisoners.
Talks with US officials over the past two years were led by Baradar, who signed a peace agreement with Washington this year that paved the way for the withdrawal of international forces and for intra-Afghan negotiations. But last week, Taliban leader Heibatullah Akhunzadeh announced that Haqqani is heading a new team of 21 members, and Taliban officials told Reuters: The change in the negotiating team aims to give it the power to make decisions immediately.
