Ekip
27 January 2019•Update: 27 January 2019
By Islamuddin Sajid
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan
The 6-day long talks in Qatar between the U.S. and the Taliban ended on Saturday with significant progress, a U.S. official said.
"Meetings here were more productive than they have been in the past. We made significant progress on vital issues," Zalmay Khalilzad, top U.S. negotiator tweeted.
Following the meetings with Taliban representatives, Khalilzad was flying back to Kabul for consultations with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and other top officials.
"Will build on the momentum and resume talks shortly. We have a number of issues left to work out. Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed, and ‘everything’ must include an intra-Afghan dialogue and comprehensive ceasefire" Khalilzad said.
He also appreciated Qatari government's role to break stalled talks with in Doha.
In a separate statement, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said that progress made on the U.S. troops withdrawal and several other vital issues during the meetings.
"This round of negotiations revolving around the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan and other vital issues saw progress but since issues are of critical nature and need comprehensive discussions it was decided that talks about unsolved matters will resume in similar future meetings" Mujahid explained.
He added that both will share the details of with their respective leadership to get their guidance for further progress.
However, the Taliban spokesman stated that progress in other issues is impossible until a consensus on the withdrawal of foreign troops is reached.
He also rejected the reports about agreement on a ceasefire and talks with the Kabul administration and termed it baseless.
Earlier on Saturday, several local TV channels in Pakistan and Afghanistan reported that U.S. and Taliban agreed on the withdrawal of the U.S. troops and that no threats would emerge from Afghanistan to the rest of the world.
