Dubai – Masaader News
Negotiators for the United States and Taliban Islamist militants will start on Saturday a seventh round of peace talks to end the war in Afghanistan, offering what one U.S. official called a “make-or-break moment” to halt 18 years of fighting, according to Reuters.
U.S. and Taliban officials privy to the talks said they will seek to finalise a schedule to withdraw foreign troops in return for a Taliban commitment to keep militant groups from using the country as a base to attack the United States and its allies.
Saturday’s talks will be led by Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. peace envoy for Afghanistan, who has held six rounds of talks with the Taliban in Qatar’s capital of Doha since October.
“There is a genuine sense of expectation on both sides,” said a senior U.S. official, who declined to be identified as he was not authorised to speak to media. “It’s a make-or-break moment.