Two senior members of Taliban’s political office in Qatar have made a visit to Islamabad ahead the resumption of face-to-face peace talks with Afghan government. The delegation reportedly visited Islamabad on February 6, on the eve of third round of the quadrilateral talks for finalizing the three-step roadmap for restarting the halted process. The two peace negotiators were Sher Mohammad ...

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry who is among the four main factors of the process launched to convince Taliban for laying down their weapons says direct talks with the militants would start soon. He told the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs on Tuesday that efforts are underway that all factions of Afghan Taliban are united and ...

The direct talks date between the Afghan government and Taliban group representatives is expected to be ascertained by the end of this month. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) said the participants of the Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG) agreed to continue joint efforts for setting a date for direct peace talks between the representatives of the Afghan government and Taliban ...

AFGHANISTAN: Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) in its new report to the United States Congress has written that Afghanistan proved even more dangerous than it was a year ago. The report further states that a year after the Coalition handed responsibility for Afghan security to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF), American and British forces were ...

AFGHANISTAN: The Afghan government on Monday said peace talks will only take place with the Taliban groups renouncing violence as efforts are underway to revive the stalled peace process amid rampant Taliban-led insurgency. Deputy presidential spokesman Syed Zafar Hashemi told reporters that trilateral and quadrilateral meetings between Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and United States will continue as part of efforts for ...

Taliban militants have set a pre-condition for restarting peace talks with Afghan government. A senior member the group has told Reuters news agency that Taliban want to be removed from a U.N. blacklist before considering rejoining peace talks aimed at ending a 15-year civil war. The unnamed Taliban member has further said that the group could participate if the U.N. ...

KABUL: A Canadian tourist, who was kidnapped in southern Afghanistan five years ago by the Taliban, has been released, authorities in Toronto says. Colin Rutherford was reported missing in February 2011 while visiting the Ghazni province. He was freed with Qatar’s help, the Canadian foreign minister said on Monday. Stephane Dion added: “Canada is very pleased that efforts undertaken to ...

TALIBAN: The stalled peace talks between the government of Afghanistan and Taliban are expected to resume soon in the wake of the quadrilateral meeting in Islamabad in which representatives from Afghanistan, Pakistan, U.S. and China discussed a roadmap for ending the 15 years long conflict. Pakistan’s The Express Tribune news agency cites a top official as saying that direct talks between ...

PAKISTAN: A senior Afghan Taliban commander has been gunned down in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, insurgent leaders were quoted as saying on Friday. The shooting happened in Kachlak area, some 25 kilometres from the provincial capital Quetta, on Thursday evening, The Express Tribune reported. A source in the insurgent movement believed the killing of Maulvi Muhammad Alam, a close confidant ...

Some Afghan Taliban factions are considering joining the peace process that officials from Afghanistan and Pakistan aim to revive next week, several senior officials said. This appears to be a softening of the militants’ recent stance against talks, they said. Next week’s meeting in Islamabad, between officials from Afghanistan, Pakistan, the United States and China, is intended as the first ...