Taliban, Afghan officials end peace talks agreeing to meet again – News

However an official with the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said that two days of talks would begin on Wednesday.

The participants agreed to continue talks to create an environment conducive for peace and reconciliation process.

When the US-led invasion ousted the militants in 2001 many of their leaders took refuge in Pakistan and still live there, closely monitored by intelligence agencies.

Afghan security personnel inspect a damaged vehicle at the site of a suicide attack that targeted a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation convoy in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, July 7, 2015.

The Afghan Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that it hoped the talks “would be a starting point for the process so it could prevent the shedding of more innocent Afghans’ blood and further destruction of the country”.

North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ended its combat mission at the end of December, leaving Afghan forces to battle the resurgent Taliban on their own.

Islamabad, Pakistan: First round of Pakistan hosted talks between Afghan Taliban and Afghan government concluded on Tuesday night in Islamabad. Pakistan has always been accused by Afghan officials of nurturing the Taliban and using them as proxies to destabilize Afghanistan and maintain Pakistan’s geopolitical interests.

The Taliban have said they took part in informal talks in Norway with an Afghan delegation, reportedly made up of women, as well as meetings in Qatar in May. But those attitudes are thought to have been in flux since December, when the Pakistani Taliban, an offshoot of the Afghan group, carried out a gruesome attack against a school in Peshawar. The talks were the first formally acknowledged by the Afghan government; that and the semi-public nature of the talks suggested possible progress after years of frustration in trying to bring the two sides together.

Pakistan helped the Taliban come to power in Kabul in the 1990s and has been criticised for continuing to support jihadist groups to carry out its foreign policy agenda.

One early clue to the significance of Tuesday’s meeting could be in what the Taliban says after it is over.

The participants were duly mandated by their respective leadership and expressed their collective desire to bring peace to Afghanistan and the region.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest stated the US welcomed the talks, calling them “an necessary step towards advancing prospects for a reputable peace”.

The U.S.-led military coalition said there were no fatalities.