The Afghan government and the Taliban are expected to kickstart the much-delayed intra-Afghan talks on Saturday, September 12, with a focus on the agenda and other related issues, said a government official to The Killid Group on condition of anonymity.
All the six hardcore prisoners of the Taliban which the government held as captives have been released, paving the way for the long-awaited peace talks to begin. According to a Taliban’s spokesperson, Mohammad Naeem Wardak, these Taliban prisoners who left Kabul on a flight to Doha on Thursday evening, had arrived to Qatar.
Those six high-profile Taliban prisoners will be transferred to house arrest in Qatar, said the government source who spoke to TKG on condition of anonymity, and would be sent back to Kabul after the dispute over the release of them gets resolved.
The source meanwhile added that Dr. Abdullah Abdullah who is the head of High Council for National Reconciliation as well as the acting foreign minister Mohammad Haneef Atmar would also travel to the Qatari capital of Doha.
The U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo would also meet with the government and the Taliban officials in Doha, Qatar, said the government official, adding the foreign minister of the West-Asian Qatar would also deliver speech.
The Afghan government and the insurgent group’s authorities didn’t initially say anything about the start of direct talks, but later the Afghan presidential spokesman Sediq Sediqqi confirmed the government negotiators would leave Kabul for the Qatari capital of Doha on Friday.
In addition to head of national reconciliation council and acting foreign minister, Abdul Salam Rahimi, the a presidential special representative on peace affairs and Seyed Sa’adat Mansour Naderi, state minister for peace affairs will also travel to Doha, representing “the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan,” Mr. Sediqqi added.
A Taliban’s newly appointed spokesperson, Mohammad Naeem Wardak, also confirmed on Twitter that talks would begin on Saturday.
It was a part of the United States-Taliban deal signed in Doha that the talks between the Afghan warring sides aimed at lasting peace should begin in the Qatari capital after a prisoner swap process is completed.
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