Taliban will sit face-to-face with Afghan government within months: Daudzai

KABUL (Agencies): Taliban will sit down for face-to-face talks with the Afghan government within months, an aide to President Ashraf Ghani said.

“We have not lost hope. In fact our hope has increased that soon inshallah Taliban will sit face-to-face with Afghan government,” Umer Daudzai, the president’s special aide for regional consensus on peace head of secretariat of High Peace Council, said in an interview with a Pakistani TV channel during his visit to the neighbouring country.

He said that the United States initiated talks with the Taliban following permission from the Afghan government, adding they were moving in the right direction.

He said that the Taliban put their demands on the Taliban, which the US then shared with the Afghan government and political elites.

“As far as that level goes we are happy. So far, we don’t have any reservations,” the official said.

Taliban have held at three rounds of talks with the US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad with the last one held in Abu Dhabi in December.

Afghan government sent its negotiating team for talks with the Taliban, but the group refused to meet it.

Daudzai said that the team travelled based on advice from Americans. “But then, when they got there and when Taliban’s position became clear that they are not authorized by their leadership council and they cannot meet with the Afghan delegation, then there was a bit of confusion and unhappy words were exchanged between Khalilzad and Taliban and between Pakistan and Taliban and Saudis and Emiratis were also very upset with the Taliban.”

The official said that there was consensus among Afghans on peace and hoped that the final peace deal would be signed with the Taliban in this year.