Afghan, Taliban Negotiators Hold Doha Peace Meeting

First direct meeting by negotiators in weeks

The negotiation teams of the Taliban and the Afghan government met this week in Doha, the first direct meeting between the two sides in weeks. The main meeting was Thursday, and the Taliban says the leaders on both teams met ahead of time on Wednesday.

The talks focused on the agenda for future peace talks, as well as ideas for speeding up progress in the talks, which have been moving at a snail’s pace, when they’ve moved at all. It’s not clear what sort of ideas those are.

The talks were last seen doing well months ago, and have struggled mightily since the US reneged on the May 1 pullout date they’d agreed to. The Taliban objected, and since then talks have been very testy, and violence has been on the rise.

The most positive thing to happen since was the Eid al-Fitr ceasefire, which held without incident throughout the important holiday, though hopes to extend beyond that were not immediately realized. It is still believed that a ceasefire is achievable, though exact details are yet clear.

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.