Taliban talking with U.S. envoy on end to Afghan war

ISLAMABAD — The Taliban have held three days of talks with U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad in the Gulf state of Qatar, where the Afghan insurgent group has a political office, a Taliban official and another individual close to the group said Sunday.

Without referring explicitly to the talks in Qatar, Khalilzad said at a news conference Sunday in the Afghan capital og Kabul “I am talking to all interested parties, all Afghan groups … and I think there is an opportunity for reconciliation and peace.”

“The Afghan government wants peace,” he said. “The Taliban are saying they do not believe they can succeed militarily, that they would like to see the problems that remain resolved by peaceful means, by political negotiations.”

Peace efforts have accelerated since Khalilzad’s appointment as Washington’s peace envoy to Afghanistan aimed at winding down America’s longest war. Seventeen years after the U.s.-led invasion that ended Taliban rule, the militants control nearly half of Afghanistan and carry out near-daily attacks on local security forces and government officials.

The U.S. administration now appears focused on reaching a political settlement with the Taliban and has given in to a number of the group’s long-standing demands, beginning with the holding of direct talks. The Taliban have long refused U.S. demands to negotiate with the Western-backed government in Kabul, which the insurgents view as a puppet regime.

Pakistan has meanwhile released several high-level Taliban prisoners, including the movement’s co-founder, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. The releases are seen as a U.s.-directed move aimed at encouraging the Taliban to participate in talks.

The Taliban, who spoke about the talks in Qatar, said Khairullah Khairkhwah, the former Taliban governor of Herat, and Mohammed Fazl, a former Taliban military chief, attended the marathon talks. The Taliban spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the sensitive talks.