KABUL: Special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad said Monday he was in Kabul to meetwith Afghan officials ahead of his next round of talks with the Talibanaimed at ending more than 17 years of war.
The Afghan-born US adviser tweeted that he had already met with somegovernment representatives with responsibility for the Afghan peace process.
“We discussed the urgency of making progress on intra-Afghan dialogue,”Khalilzad wrote.
Khalilzad’s last round of talks with the Taliban in Doha was originallyslated to last two days in February, but dragged on for 16 days, eventuallyending March 12 with Khalilzad saying “real strides” had been made.
On the table were proposals to get foreign armed forces to leaveAfghanistan, and the Taliban to guarantee the country cannot be used as aspringboard for terror groups to launch any future attacks.
The State Department on Friday said Khalilzad’s trip was “part of anoverall effort to facilitate a peace process that brings all Afghan partiestogether in inclusive intra-Afghan negotiations”.
But so far the talks have not included the Kabul government.
The Taliban have long refused to speak with Kabul, deeming theadministration of President Ashraf Ghani — who is seeking re-election thisyear — puppets of the West.
Khalilzad’s trip has already seen him stop in London and Brussels as heseeks global support for a peace deal.
Last week, he met with representatives from China, Russia and the EuropeanUnion in Washington.