The intra-Afghan dialogue aims to reconcile Afganistan\u2019s warring parties
\nnews desk
\nKABUL
\nChina is organizing talks among Afghanistan\u2019s rival factions as part of efforts to end years of war after negotiations between the Taliban and the United States on the withdrawal of US forces broke down. China, which shares a short border with Afghanistan, has been trying to encourage peace efforts and last month a Taliban delegation visited Beijing for talks with government officials.
\n\u201cChina has invited a delegation … to participate in the intra-Afghan dialogue,\u201d a Taliban spokesman, Suhail Shaheen, said in a post on Twitter late on Tuesday. The so-called intra-Afghan dialogue is aimed at reconciliation between Afghanistan\u2019s warring parties and has been running parallel to the talks between the insurgents and the United States.
\nLast month, US President Donald Trump halted the talks with the Taliban aimed at striking a deal for US and other foreign troops to withdraw in exchange for Taliban security guarantees, after the militants carried out a bomb attack in Kabul that killed 12 people, including a US soldier. The United States has been hoping that its deal with the Taliban would pave the way for a cease-fire and power-sharing talks between the Afghan government and the insurgents.
\nThe Taliban have refused to talk to the government, denouncing it a US puppet, but government officials have taken part in the intra-Afghan dialogue as private citizens.<\/p>\n
Shaheen said the talks in China would be held on that basis.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll participants will be attending the meeting in their personal capacity and they will share their personal opinions for solving the Afghan issue,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He did not give a date for the talks and officials at China\u2019s embassy in Kabul were not available for comment.<\/p>\n
The Afghan government was aware of China\u2019s plan to host talks but it could not comment at this stage, said deputy foreign minister, Idress Zaman.<\/p>\n
A spokesman for former Afghan president Hamid Karzai, who attended intra-Afghan talks in Russia in February, said Karzai\u2019s office was aware of China\u2019s plan for talks and Karzai would attend if invited.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The intra-Afghan dialogue aims to reconcile Afganistan\u2019s warring parties news desk KABUL China is organizing talks among Afghanistan\u2019s rival factions as part of efforts to end years of war after negotiations between the Taliban and the United States on the withdrawal of US forces broke down. China, which shares a short border with Afghanistan, has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-89372","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-top-news"},"yoast_head":"\n