US Envoy Meets With Taliban Delegation in Pakistan

First meeting between US, Taliban in weeks

US special envoy and former peace negotiator Zalmay Khalilzad was in Pakistan today, and reportedly spent over an hour meeting with a top Taliban delegation, the first such meeting since President Trump declared the peace talks “dead.”

Details on what Khalilzad discussed have not been disclosed, but this comes just a day after the Taliban delegation met with Pakistan’s Foreign Minister, and asked him to intervene to help get the peace talks restarted. Pakistan agreed, and before long Khalilzad was in Islamabad.

Media reports said there were no formal negotiations at today’s meeting, but that the Taliban aimed to build confidence to try to get the talks going again. The Taliban reportedly reiterated their commitment to the existing deal.

The State Department has declined comment on the matter, and President Trump hasn’t said anything either. Most recently Trump suggested it was likely impossible for the Taliban to make up for the death of a US soldier a couple of months ago, which was his reasoning for scrapping the peace process in the first place.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.