DOHA: Upcoming talks between the Taliban and the United States will focuson the timetable for pulling all foreign forces from Afghanistan, accordingto a senior Taliban member.
In an interview with AFP, the Taliban’s political spokesman Suhail Shaheensaid previous negotiations with Washington saw the two sides agree to atotal withdrawal, with only the details needing to be fleshed out.
“In our last round of talks with the US side, we agreed with them onwithdrawal of all foreign forces from Afghanistan,” Shaheen said lateSaturday in Doha.
In return for a withdrawal, he said the Taliban have committed topreventing terror groups using Afghanistan as a safe haven or for launchingattacks on other countries.
“But still there are some details to be discussed, and this discussion willtake place in our next round of talks and that is about (the) timetable ofthe withdrawal of forces from the country and other details,” Shaheen said.
The next round of talks is expected to take place in Doha in the comingweeks, but no dates have been formally announced.
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US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, who is leading the talks for Washington,said after the latest round ended that “real strides” had been made, but heinsisted no agreement was reached on when the US and other countries mightleave Afghanistan.
He spoke of an agreement “in draft” on the issues of counter-terrorism,assurances from the Taliban and troop withdrawal, and suggested the nextphases would be intra-Afghan dialogue and a ceasefire, but stressed thatnothing was finalised.
Khalilzad has also said that “nothing is agreed to until everything hasbeen agreed to.” – APP/AFP
