World

The Afghan government intensified calls for a cease-fire with the Taliban on September 14 as Kabul and the militants began the second day of historic peace talks.

Negotiations kicked off over the weekend in Qatar and are initially expected to focus on technical details such as schedules for the talks and a code of conduct, the Afghan government said.

The Afghan government and its allies, including NATO and the United States, are calling for the Taliban to agree to a truce to help advance what are expected to be long and grinding negotiations to end 19 years of conflict.

But the Taliban have not agreed to a cease-fire and have conducted near daily attacks on Afghan security forces since the United States and the militants struck an agreement in February that could see foreign troops exit Afghanistan.

The deal, which paved the way for the Qatar negotiations, did not commit the insurgents to any reduction of violence, only requiring that it be "an item on the agenda" in negotiations.

Afghan presidential spokesman Sediq Seddiqi tweeted September 14 that the presence of government negotiators at the talks "is aimed at achieving a cease-fire, ending the violence, and ensuring lasting peace and stability in the country."

As talks were under way in Qatar, U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad and a U.S. delegation visited Pakistan, a key regional power broker with sway over the Taliban.

The U.S. team met with Pakistan's army chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.

Pakistan claims its influence over the Taliban is overstated, but it says it is willing to do whatever is possible for peace in Afghanistan.

A military statement said the U.S. delegation “greatly appreciated" Pakistan’s role in the peace process and that “it could not have succeeded without Pakistan’s sincere and unconditional support."

In 2015, Pakistan hosted the first ever face-to-face talks between Kabul and the Afghan Taliban, but those talks collapsed when the Afghan government announced the death of Taliban founder Mullah Mohammed Omar.

Since then, the United States worked with Islamabad to help convince the Taliban to meet with the U.S. and Afghan officials.

Last month, a Taliban political team led by Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar visited Islamabad to consult with Pakistani officials.

Pakistan freed Baradar from prison in 2018 in what was widely viewed as a coordinated move with the United States to advance U.S.-Taliban peace talks.

A comprehensive peace deal could take months or years to reach, involving other countries and the willingness of the warring sides to compromise on major sticking points and share power.

The Taliban have long been concerned that reducing violence levels could decrease their negotiating leverage, but heightened violence also risks derailing talks in their early stages.

The U.S.-backed negotiations are already taking place six months later than planned due to disagreements over a controversial prisoner swap and ongoing violence.

With reporting by AFP, AP, and Reuters

U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden says if he is elected he will maintain a small troop presence in Afghanistan and Iraq to help battle terrorism in the war-ravaged countries.

Biden said he supports a reduction of troops in the country, "but here’s the problem: We still have to worry about terrorism and [the Islamic State]."

Biden was speaking in a phone interview with Stars and Stripes, the U.S. military newspaper, published on September 10. The newspaper said it has also requested an interview with President Donald Trump.

"I think we need special ops capacity to coordinate with our allies," Biden told the newspaper, adding that he envisioned 1,500 to 2,000 troops as the maximum number. He did not list the specific numbers for each country or for those in neighboring Syria, where U.S. troops are also deployed.

Biden added, though, that the military should not interfere in the political affairs of the countries where troops are deployed and should coordinate with allies to train and lead to “take out terrorist groups who are going to continue to emerge.”

The Pentagon earlier this week said that U.S. troops in Iraq would be reduced from just over 5,000 to about 3,000 this month.

Trump has said he will cut the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan from 8,000 to 4,000-5,000 by Election Day on November 3.

Biden also said he does not plan to slash the U.S. defense budget in the face of potential threats from countries such as Russia and China.

Trump has said repeatedly that he wants to end America's longest war, which began in Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States.

Long-delayed peace talks between Taliban and Afghan government negotiators are set to kick off in Qatar on September 12.

The negotiations are part of a landmark deal signed between the United States and the Taliban in February.

Talks were initially supposed to start the following month but were delayed as the Taliban and the Afghan government completed a prisoner exchange.

Under the U.S.-Taliban agreement signed in Doha in February, international forces should withdraw from Afghanistan by May 2021 in exchange for counterterrorism guarantees from the militant group, which pledged to negotiate a permanent cease-fire and power-sharing deal with the Afghan government.

With reporting by Stars and Stripes and RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan