KABUL (Yeni Safak) – The Taliban will not attend planned peace talks withthe United States in Saudi Arabia this month, and want to shift the venueto Qatar, Taliban officials said on Sunday, seeking to fend off Riyadh’spush to include the Afghan government in talks.
The upcoming negotiations, the fourth in a series aimed at ending the17-year war in Afghanistan, are scheduled between the leaders of theTaliban and U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad to discuss the withdrawalof foreign forces and a possible ceasefire in 2019.
Leaders of the Taliban have rejected the Kabul government’s offer fordirect talks, despite growing international pressure in favor of theWestern-backed Afghan government having a seat at the table.
“We were supposed to meet U.S. officials in Riyadh next week and continueour peace process that remained incomplete in Abu Dhabi last month,” asenior Taliban member based in Afghanistan told Reuters on condition ofanonymity.
“The problem is that leaders of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates(UAE) wanted us to definitely meet the Afghan government delegation, whichwe cannot afford to do now, and we have cancelled the meeting in SaudiArabia,” he said.
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The Taliban want to change the venue for the talks to Qatar, he said, wheretheir political headquarters are located and the site for earlier talks.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed the group has decided tocancel the meeting in Saudi Arabia, but did not provide information about anew meeting venue.
The United States embassy in Afghanistan did not immediately respond to arequest for comment.
