Taliban and the United States are "close" to finalising a peace agreement in their talks in the Qatari capital aimed at ending the 18-year Afghanistan war, the group's representative has said, APA reports citing Al-Jazeera.
Taliban's political spokesman in Doha, Suhail Shaheen, said the two sides were finalising the agreement during the ninth round of negotiations, which entered their seventh day on Wednesday: "The talks continue today [Wednesday] and we have reached the last point of the agreement. The final point is the implementation and the mechanism of the deal which is being discussed," Shaheen told Al Jazeera.
The deal would see the US and other foreign forces gradually withdraw from Afghanistan in exchange for a commitment by the Taliban that the country will not be used as a launchpad for global attacks.
After the two sides agree on the two central issues, a separate dialogue on ensuring a permanent ceasefire and a power-sharing agreement between the Afghan government and the Taliban are expected to take place in the form of intra-Afghan talks. So far, the Taliban has refused to speak to the Afghan government, calling it a "puppet regime" of the West. The group says any engagement with Kabul would grant the government legitimacy.
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