Russia to host Afghan talks on November 9

MOSCOW/KABUL: Russia on Saturday said it will host international talks on Afghanistan on November 9, with representatives of both the Afghan government and the Taliban, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Moscow said Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and the Taliban have agreed to send delegations to the conference.

“It will be the first time that a delegation of the Political Office of the Taliban Movement in Doha will take part in international talks (at) such a level,” the foreign ministry’s statement said.

The Afghan foreign ministry, however, did not confirm that the Kabul government will attend the talks.

“We are still negotiating and talking with Russian officials (about the conference). We have not reached an agreement yet,” Sebghatullah Ahmadi, an Afghan foreign ministry spokesman, said.

Moscow said it had also invited representatives from the US as well as India, Iran, China, Pakistan and five former Soviet republics in Central Asia to take part.

US soldier killed: One US soldier was killed and another wounded in an “apparent insider attack” in Kabul on Saturday, Nato said, in the latest such assault on international forces in Afghanistan.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the third socalled “green-on-blue” attack in less than three weeks that have rattled foreign troops tasked with training and assisting the war-torn country’s military.

Ghani to seek re-election: Afghan President Ashraf Ghani will seek re-election in 2019, his office announced on Saturday, as potential rivals begin jockeying for the country’s top job ahead of the ballot.

Ghani, who was elected in a fraud-tainted poll in 2014 that was only resolved in a Us-brokered power-sharing deal, is expected to present himself to war-weary voters as the candidate who can end the 17-year conflict.

The 69-year-old acerbic academic, who has a reputation for shouting at subordinates and micromanaging the unity government, will try to capitalise on renewed Us-led efforts to engage the Taliban in peace talks, which are showing tentative signs of bearing fruit.

“I can confirm that President Ghani is seeking re-election next year,” presidential palace spokesman Shah Hussain Murtazawi said.

Ghani, who chose the widely feared ethnic Uzbek leader Abdul Rashid Dostum as his first running mate in the 2014 election, has not yet announced who he will pick this time round.

It also is not certain who will challenge Ghani in the April 20 ballot.

Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, Afghanistan’s equivalent of prime minister, and former national security adviser Mohammad Haneef Atmar, who quit in August, are among potential contenders.

Moscow said it had also invited representatives from the US as well as India, Iran, China, Pakistan and five former Soviet republics in Central Asia to take part