The all-important Istanbul conference in Turkey is expected to be held at some point next week, a multi-national conference centered on trying to pave a pass forward for Afghanistan peace. That doesn’t mean that everything is on hold until then.
Meetings are continuing to be held all over among different expected participants in the conference, and negotiators say they’re making some deals on the scope of the Istanbul conference itself.
Afghanistan is holding its own internal discussions on a 12- to 15-member delegation to be sent to Istanbul. They will be expected to push President Ghani’s plan, the details of which are just starting to be made public.
Ghani’s is just one of the plans Afghanistan is going over, however. Officials say that they are reviewing some 25 different peace proposals offered by various political parties to the peace council.