Working groups from the Taliban and the Afghan government met again for the third consecutive day, looking to make further progress after reaching deals on procedural rules. The focus right now is to set an agenda for further talks, with the Taliban offering a 22-point proposal.
The Afghan government wants a ceasefire as among the first topics on the agenda. Reports also suggested the Taliban might want more prisoner exchanges, though Afghan MPs are publicly very opposed to that.
Afghan opponents may be making too much of the prisoner exchange, as so far the Taliban hasn’t even suggested adding it to the agenda, so they’re only opposing a topic that no one is asking for, and may not seek at all.
The ceasefire is the most immediate concern either way, and reaching that, along with continuing discussions on other matters, could advance the process even more, and come closer to ending the war outright.
Afghan Negotiators Continue Daily Meetings to Set Doha Agenda
Taliban has not included prisoner releases to be discussed
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.
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