Taliban representatives and an Afghan delegation led by former President Hamid Karzai are holding a second and final day of talks in Moscow, with the militants continuing to insist upon the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Afghanistan as a first step in the peace process.
U.S. President Donald Trump described U.S. talks with the Taliban as "constructive" in his February 5 State of the Union address.
Taliban representatives and an Afghan delegation led by former President Hamid Karzai have begun two days of talks in Moscow billed as part of an "intra-Afghan" peace process -- despite the lack of representatives from the current Afghan government at the meetings.
The Russian government has denied organizing the meeting. However, it's highly unlikely such a high-profile event would be allowed to take place in the Russian capital without the Kremlin's blessing.
This year the generation of Afghans born in 2001, when a U.S.-backed coalition toppled the Taliban, comes of age. As the United States engages in talks with the militants, young Afghans speak of their hopes and concerns for the future.
An official of the Taliban militant group, which now reportedly controls nearly half of Afghanistan, says the group is not seeking to rule Afghanistan alone in any future government structure and wants to co-exist with current institutions.
President Donald Trump expressed cautious satisfaction over the progress of peace talks with the Taliban in Afghanistan, following six days of talks between the U.S. special envoy for the conflict-wracked country and Taliban negotiators last week.
An Afghanistan analyst says the Taliban has the ability to keep its side of a bargain reached with U.S. negotiators to start an Afghan-led peace process. But do all sides have the will to move forward?
A Taliban spokesman also said there was progress, but he denied reports of an agreement on a cease-fire.
U.S. and Taliban officials have agreed in principle to the "framework" of a peace deal, U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad said after five days of talks between the militant group and the United States in Qatar.
U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad has arrived in Kabul to consult Afghan government officials following six days of talks with the Afghan Taliban in Qatar aimed ending the 17-year conflict in Afghanistan.
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