Fraidoon Khwazoon, spokesman for the Afghan High Council for National Reconciliation, took to Twitter on Wednesday, saying Mohammad Masoom Stanikzai, who is head of a negotiation team representing the Islamic Republic and a number of its members met with U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation, Zalmay Khalilzad, in Doha.
Both sides discussed accelerating the peace process and the upcoming Turkey-hosted peace conference on Afghanistan.
Mohammad Naeem, spokesperson for the political office of the Taliban in Qatar, meanwhile, said the U.S. envoy also met with a Taliban cofounder and its deputy leader in Doha where they discussed the implementation of the deal signed on February last year between the United States and the Taliban.
According to the spokesman, the Taliban officials emphasized on meeting troop withdrawal deadline, calling it major step to addressing country’s problems.
Under a deal signed between the United States and the Taliban late February 2020, the United States and allies made commitments to pull all troops out of Afghanistan by May 1, 2021.
U.S. President Joe Biden has said that it would be hard to withdraw the last U.S. troops by May 1 deadline which was a part of the U.S.-Taliban agreement.
The Taliban, however, warned against keeping troops, saying it would resume attacks on foreign forces if the U.S. does not meet the deadline.
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