Image copyright AFP Image caption The US has about 14,000 troops in Afghanistan and is part of a Nato mission there

The top US envoy seeking to broker peace in Afghanistan has met one of the Taliban's co-founders for the first time, as the latest round of talks get under way in Qatar.

Special representative Zalmay Khalilzad said he held a working lunch with Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar before "moving on to talks".

Mullah Baradar was recently released from a Pakistani prison.

His presence in Qatar is thought to improve the chances of a deal.

Last month's US-Taliban talks in Qatar made progress in ending 17 years of conflict in Afghanistan, the US said.

US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad said the January talks had been "more productive than they have been in the past" but added there were a number of issues still to work out.

He said a "draft framework" of a peace deal had been agreed, based on commitments by the US to withdraw international forces from Afghanistan, and from the Taliban not to allow jihadist groups to operate in the country.

The Taliban also said progress had been made in the negotiations. However, a spokesman added that talks about "unsolved matters" would continue.

The Taliban have so far refused to hold direct talks with Afghan officials, whom they dismiss as "puppets". They say they will only begin negotiations with the government once a firm date for the withdrawal of US troops has been agreed.

Mullah Baradar, a deputy to Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhunzada, was put in charge of the Taliban political office in Qatar in January but until now has remained in Pakistan and has not made any public appearances.

He served in a number of key roles within the Taliban, until he was detained by Pakistani authorities in 2010.

A senior Taliban figure told the BBC that Mullah Baradar's authority within the group to make decisions could help "speed up the peace process".

Mr Khalilzad has suggested this is the case. He tweeted that he was this time meeting "with a more authoritative Taliban delegation", adding that it "could be a significant moment".

After last month's talks, Taliban sources told the BBC that the two sides had agreed to form committees to address two key issues in detail: the withdrawal of foreign forces and how the Taliban would in turn implement a commitment to prevent groups like al-Qaeda and Islamic State from using Afghanistan as a base in future.

Obstacles ahead

by Secunder Kermani, BBC Afghanistan correspondent, in Doha

Mullah Baradar isn't the only senior figure from the group attending the talks in Doha for the first time. Also here is Amir Khan Motaqi, chief of staff to the Taliban supreme leader. Their presence seems to indicate how seriously the Taliban are taking these discussions.

But there are still major obstacles ahead.

It seems Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's administration is being deliberately sidelined by the Taliban who have so far refused to talk to them. Yet it's hard to see how a deal could be done without their involvement.

The absence of talks between the Taliban and the Kabul government also means there's been no official discussion of what a post-peace Afghanistan would look like. Would it be a democracy? Would women have the same rights they have now?

There's an argument that while progress has been made, so far the Taliban are yet to make any major concessions. Their promise not to allow other jihadists to operate in Afghanistan isn't new. American officials will hope this beefed up Taliban negotiating team will have the authority and willingness to show some flexibility.

The Taliban's power and reach have surged since foreign combat troops left Afghanistan in 2014.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The BBC is given rare access to see life under the Taliban

Last month, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said more than 45,000 members of the country's security forces had been killed since he became leader in 2014.

It is estimated that about 15 million people - half the Afghan population - are living in areas either controlled by the Taliban or where the militants are openly present and regularly mount attacks.

On Sunday UN figures showed that more civilians were killed last year in Afghanistan than at any time since records began.

In December, reports emerged that the US was planning to withdraw about 7,000 troops - roughly half the remaining US military presence in the country.

Analysts warned that such a withdrawal could offer the Taliban a propaganda victory.

Who are the Taliban?

The Taliban emerged in the early 1990s following the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan, shortly before the demise of the Soviet Union.

The militants ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, imposing a brutal version of Islamic law that included public executions and amputations, and the banning of women from public life.

They were driven from power by US-led troops following the 9/11 attacks which Washington blamed on al-Qaeda militants sheltered by the Taliban.</s>Senior Taliban leaders, including one of the group’s founders, were to hold another round of talks Monday in Qatar with Washington’s special peace envoy as US efforts intensify to find a negotiated solution to Afghanistan’s 17-year war, America’s longest.

The Taliban, some of whom arrived in Doha, Qatar’s capital, from Pakistan the previous night, raised expectations ahead of talks with US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad.

“Yes, there is a possibility we will reach some results,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told The Associated Press.

Leading the Taliban delegation in Doha was Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a co-founder of the movement who was released last year from a Pakistani jail where he had languished since his arrest in a joint Pakistani-CIA operation in 2010.

Past rounds have focused on US withdrawal of troops, which has been a standing Taliban demand, and guarantees that Afghanistan will not be used again as a staging area for terror attacks on the United States.

Khalilzad is expected to pressure the Taliban to hold direct talks with the government in Kabul, something the insurgents have so far refused to do.

The Taliban ruled Afghanistan before US forces invaded in October 2001 following the 9/11 terrorist attack. The Taliban today have resurged, carrying out near-daily deadly attacks on Afghan army and police forces and holding sway over almost half the country.

They view the US-backed government in Kabul as a dysfunctional Western puppet and have refused repeated offers to negotiate with it.

However, former Afghan President Hamid Karzai recently told the AP that the Taliban would talk with Afghan government officials on condition they are part of a larger group of prominent Afghan figures meeting with the Taliban - similar to the gathering held earlier this month in Moscow.

Karzai attended the meeting in Russia, as did Afghan opposition figures, but no one from the Kabul government was there.

Baradar’s presence in Doha and his lead role in the talks with Khalilzad is considered significant because of his stature within the Taliban movement. The Taliban maintain a political office in Doha.

Following his release, Baradar had circulated a Pashtu-language audio tape promising Taliban fighters he would have a greater presence within the movement.

Since his appointment as Washington’s peace envoy, Khalilzad has crisscrossed the region, meeting the Taliban on several occasions, as well as differing powerbrokers in Kabul, including Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.

He has also been to Pakistan, India, Russia and China and held meetings with NATO and EU officials. Last week, he was in Turkey for talks with government officials as well as Zamir Kabulov, Russia’s envoy to Afghanistan.

Ghani has also called a Loya Jirga, a traditional gathering of political and tribal leaders, for next month to draw up the government’s negotiating position for talks with the Taliban, though he has yet to put together a negotiating team that would have wide support of Afghan political and tribal leaders.

Khalilzad previously said he envisions an agreement reached by the warring sides as a “roadmap” to the country’s future. Washington’s talks with the Taliban are more about safeguarding America’s national interests and security and Khalilzad has said that Afghan negotiators have to fight for their vision of a future Afghanistan at the negotiation table with the Taliban.</s>U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad met with one of the Afghan Taliban's co-founders in Qatar, in what was said to be the highest-level engagement between the two sides as part of Afghanistan's peace process.

 

 "Just finished a working lunch with Mullah [Abdul Ghani Beradar] and his team. First time we'’ve met. Now moving on to talks" aimed at finding a negotiated solution to Afghanistan's 17-year war, Khalilzad tweeted on February 25.

 

 Baradar was released in October after spending eight years in Pakistani custody, but until now has remained in Pakistan and has not made any public appearances.

 

 His appointment as the Taliban’s political chief was widely seen as marking a new push by the militant group to achieve political and diplomatic legitimacy.

 

 "Arrived in Doha to meet with a more authoritative Taliban delegation. This could be a significant moment," Khalilzad wrote on Twitter earlier in the day.

 

 Meanwhile, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told the Associated Press that there was "a possibility we will reach some results" during the planned four-day talks.

 

 The BBC quoted an unidentified senior Taliban figure as saying that Baradar's authority within the group to make decisions could help "speed up the peace process."

 

 The Taliban, which now reportedly controls nearly half of Afghanistan, has held a series of direct talks with Khalilzad in recent months.

However, the militant group has so far refused to hold direct talks with Afghan officials, calling them "puppets."

 

 During their previous round of talks in Doha in January, U.S. and Taliban negotiators reached the basic framework of a possible peace deal.

 

 The agreement calls for the Taliban to prevent international terrorist groups from basing themselves in Afghanistan and for the United States to withdraw its forces from the country.

 

 U.S. troops have been in Afghanistan since an October 2001 invasion that brought down the Taliban government after it refused to hand over Al-Qaeda extremists, including Osama bin Laden, blamed for launching the September 11 attacks in the United States.</s>DOHA (Reuters) - The latest round of peace talks between the United States and the Taliban will begin in Doha this week and include Taliban political chief Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, Qatar said on Sunday, despite earlier reports suggesting his absence.

The talks are expected to centre around a ceasefire to end America’s longest war and the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan, and are expected begin on Feb. 25, according to diplomatic sources.

U.S. officials have been keen to negotiate with Baradar, hoping the Taliban’s co-founder and military veteran would add momentum and have the clout to discuss tough issues surrounding the end of the 17-year war.

Baradar was released from a Pakistani jail in October and his appointment was widely seen as marking a new push by the Taliban to emerge from the political and diplomatic shadows.

The talks will be led on the U.S. side by United States Special Representative for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad, the foreign ministry statement said.

U.S. officials said that last month’s talks in Doha had seen the most significant progress to date but that major sticking points remained over the timing of a ceasefire.

The Taliban have snubbed recent Afghan government attempts to participate, as well as an offer by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to open a Taliban office in Afghanistan, with the group pushing instead for international recognition of its Doha office.

Some 14,000 U.S. troops are based in Afghanistan as part of a U.S.-led NATO mission to train, assist and advise Afghan forces. Some U.S. forces also carry out counter-terrorism operations.

The push for peace comes as the Taliban, ousted by U.S.-led forces in 2001, have staged near daily attacks and are in control of or contesting districts across nearly half the country.

The foreign presence in Afghanistan has been sharply reduced since its peak at more than 130,000 troops including 100,000 Americans in 2010. More than 2,300 Americans have died in Afghanistan and more than 1,100 troops from more than two dozen allied countries, including more than 450 British soldiers.

The United Nations, which has tallied civilian deaths since 2009, had counted nearly 30,000 by 2017. Tens of thousands of members of the Afghan security forces and an unknown number of insurgents have also died.</s>Senior Taliban leaders, including one of the group’s founders, were to hold another round of talks on Monday in Qatar with Washington’s special peace envoy as U.S. efforts intensify to find a negotiated solution to Afghanistan’s 17-year war, America’s longest.

The Taliban, some of whom arrived in Doha, Qatar’s capital, from Pakistan the previous night, raised expectations ahead of talks with U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad.

“Yes, there is a possibility we will reach some results,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told The Associated Press.

Leading the Taliban delegation in Doha was Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a co-founder of the movement who was released last year from a Pakistani jail where he had languished since his arrest in a joint Pakistani-CIA operation in 2010.

Past rounds have focused on U.S. withdrawal of troops, which has been a standing Taliban demand, and guarantees that Afghanistan will not be used again as a staging area for terror attacks on the United States.

Khalilzad is expected to pressure the Taliban to hold direct talks with the government in Kabul, something the insurgents have so far refused to do.

The Taliban, who had harbored al-Qaida and its leader Osama bin Laden, ruled Afghanistan before U.S. forces invaded in October 2001 following the 9/11 terrorist attack. The Taliban today have resurged, carrying out deadly near-daily attacks on Afghan army and police forces and holding sway over almost half the country.

They view the US-backed government in Kabul as a dysfunctional Western puppet and have refused repeated offers to negotiate with it. However, former Afghan President Hamid Karzai recently told the AP that the Taliban would talk with Afghan government officials on condition they are part of a larger group of prominent Afghan figures meeting with the Taliban similar to the gathering held earlier this month in Moscow.

Ghani has also called a Loya Jirga, a traditional gathering of political and tribal leaders, for next month to draw up the government’s negotiating position for talks with the Taliban, though he has yet to put together a negotiating team that would have wide support of Afghan political and tribal leaders.</s>The top U.S. envoy for peace in Afghanistan met a senior Taliban leader in Qatar on Monday as the two sides resumed talks to end 17 years of war despite the insurgents' continued refusal to deal with the Kabul government.

Zalmay Khalilzad, named last year to lead the U.S. peace effort, met Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a co-founder of the Taliban and the movement's political chief, for the first time in Doha. Talks were expected to run for at least four days.

'Just finished a working lunch with Mullah Baradar and his team. First time we've met. Now moving on to talks,' Khalilzad tweeted.

Even with peace talks under way, the war in Afghanistan killed almost 4,000 civilians in 2018, including a record number of children, making it the single deadliest year for Afghan civilians since the United Nations began documenting casualties a decade ago.

Baradar arrived in Doha on Sunday, but sources said it was not clear whether he would attend all the meetings, which diplomats in Kabul said were expected to focus on clinching a ceasefire before the onset of warmer spring weather prompts an escalation of fighting, as in previous years.

The last round of talks ended in Qatar in January.

Baradar, a veteran fighter and figure of considerable influence within the Taliban, was released from a Pakistani jail last year. His appointment was widely seen as a fresh effort by the Taliban to emerge from the political and diplomatic shadows.

Last week the Taliban said that Baradar had named a 14-member team for the talks and would not go to Qatar, but his plans changed on Sunday.

'There was much confusion whether Mullah Baradar should travel to Qatar or not. Some of our people wanted him to go there but avoid participation in the peace talks. Others wanted him to go and supervise the peace talks,' said a senior Taliban leader in Afghanistan.

American negotiators, who have held multiple rounds of talks with Taliban leaders since last year, want Baradar to attend the talks to be able to resolve key sticking points: the timing of a ceasefire and the possible withdrawal of foreign forces.

'What was the point of Baradar's release if he wants to stay away from the talks?' said a senior diplomat in Kabul, adding that U.S. negotiators had to provide assurances to lift a travel ban on some Taliban leaders to get Baradar to travel to Qatar.

Last week, the United States and Russia agreed to explore options to revoke a U.N. travel ban on Taliban negotiators, one of the key demands of the group.

Taliban officials have so far rejected the Afghan government's offer to hold direct talks but Kabul is planning to hold a grand council of tribal elders and political leaders next month to discuss how to end the Taliban insurgency.

Sohail Shahin, a Taliban spokesman, said U.S. and Taliban officials are expected to focus on the details of a framework deal reached in principle last month - American troops would withdraw from Afghanistan in return for a Taliban guarantee that Afghan territory would never be used by militants.

'The ceasefire is one of the big issues that will be discussed at the last stage of this round of peace talks,' said Shahin. 'We are optimistic about the ongoing talks which can end with good progress...It is possible that the Taliban do not refresh or announce their spring offensive.'</s>Taliban, Afghan Politicians Next Round of Talks to be Held in March in Qatar: Sources

The next round of talks between the Taliban and Afghan politicians will be held next month in Doha, the capital of Qatar.

The Taliban sources told Ariana News on Monday that the second round of Taliban-Afghan politicians meeting will take place in March, following the end of two-day talks between the U.S. and Taliban representatives in Qatar on February 25-26.

A source close to the Taliban said that some officials of the Afghan government likely to participate in this round of Taliban-Afghan politicians peace talks.

“In the Moscow Talks it was decided that the next round of talks will take place in Qatar after the U.S.-Taliban meeting,” the source said. “The preparation has kicked off for the meeting and possibly some figures of the government will also to be part of this round of talks.”

Another Taliban source told Ariana News that in the second round of intra-Afghan dialogue, Taliban are expected to share the outcomes of their due meeting with the U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad in Qatar.

It comes a day after the Taliban in a statement said that the meeting between the U.S. officials and the group’s representatives in Islamabad was postponed.

The statement noted that the meeting was delayed because some members of the Taliban delegation were in the UN blacklist.</s>Kabul, Afghanistan -- The Afghan Taliban and the United States have resumed high-level talks in Doha, Qatar, aimed at ending America's longest involvement in any war. The U.S. envoy to the Afghanistan peace talks, Zalmay Khalilzad, has met the Taliban's political leader and co-founder of the Islamic insurgency, whose mere presence in this round of talks could indicate headway. But even as the talks enter a new, more serious phase, the Taliban is preparing its forces to wage war.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar is a respected figure among the Taliban. He is thought to bring decision making authority to the negotiating table. He arrived in Doha "after a formal invitation by the Foreign Minister of Qatar and in a private airplane sent by" Qatar, "where he was warmly received," according to a statement released by the Taliban.

The objective of this round of talks is to hammer out some of the details of a broad "roadmap" for peace that was discussed in previous meetings. At the heart of the negotiations is when, and under what circumstances the U.S. will pull its troops out of Afghanistan.

The conversation has taken place thus far with the notable absence of any Afghan government representatives. The Taliban refuses to meet Afghan government officials, as it considers the administration a puppet regime of the United States.

Nazar Muhammad Mutamaeen, a political analyst and former official under the Taliban regime toppled by the U.S. invasion in 2001, told CBS News that "the difference in this round of talks" is Baradar's presence.

The elder militant was once the deputy of Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taliban's supreme leader who died in 2013. He was freed by Pakistan -- in an effort to boost the peace talks -- after more than a decade in prison following his 2010 arrest by U.S. and Pakistani forces.

Mutamaeen said that with Baradar at the table, "the current Taliban representatives taking part in the negotiations are powerful and authoritative… capable of making decisions without wasting time going back to their leaders."

Khalilzad said on Tuesday, after meeting Baradar, that the talks represented a "significant moment."

The biggest point still under negotiation is the timetable for the withdrawal of the roughly 12,000 U.S. forces in Afghanistan -- and in return, when the Taliban will agree to guarantee that Afghan territory will not be used as a terrorist safe haven to plot attacks on the United States or its allies.

When in the process the Taliban will accept a ceasefire and stop attacking Afghan forces -- and engage in direct talks with the Afghan government -- are also key topics on the agenda.

The talks in Qatar were scheduled to go through Wednesday, but they could be extended if needed.

"Once an agreement is made in the external aspect of talks, which is the pull-out of foreign forces, then we can speak about the internal aspect of peace talks with the Afghan government," said Sohail Shaheen, a spokesman for the Taliban's political office in Doha.

While the U.S.-Taliban discussions may be gaining steam, Shaheen said there was currently no plan to cancel the group's annual spring offensive against Afghan and allied forces.

"Only if an agreement is reached, and an Islamic government is formed to include all Afghans, will we neither need a spring offensive nor be required to fight," Shaheen said.

The Afghan government, sidelined from the ongoing talks to end the 18-year war, is planning to hold a grand council of tribal elders next month that would include between 2,000 and 3,000 representatives from across the country. The objective would be for the government to get feedback to start laying down the parameters of any eventual talks with the Taliban.

President Ashraf Ghani, who is seeking a second term in elections to be held in July, said in his nomination speech that he would, "work for peace on behalf of a dignified and a painful nation, but we will not beg for peace from anyone."

The United Nations released a report this week which shows the extent to which regular Afghans have borne the brunt of the suffering through this war. Among other grim statistics, the report found "the highest recorded number of boys and girls killed in the conflict during a single year" in 2018.

In total, the UN's Afghan mission said 3,804 civilians were killed last year alone, and another 7,189 injured left injured, "representing a five percent increase in overall civilian casualties and an 11 percent increase in civilian deaths compared to 2017."

The U.N. blamed 63 percent of those casualties on "Anti-Government Elements (AGEs)," with the Taliban's owning a 37 percent share of the violence.</s>DOHA, Qatar (AP) - Senior Taliban leaders, including one of the group's founders, have arrived in Qatar for another round of talks with Washington's special envoy tasked with finding a negotiated solution to Afghanistan's protracted war.

Talks with U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad are expected to start on Monday.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a co-founder of the movement, was among the Taliban who arrived in Doha, where the insurgents have a political office.

Past rounds of talks have focused on U.S. withdrawal of troops, which is a long-standing Taliban demand, and guarantees that Afghanistan will not be used again as a staging area for terror attacks on the U.S.

Khalilzad is expected to pressure the Taliban to hold direct talks with the government in Kabul, something the insurgents have so far refused to do.</s>KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban’s deputy leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, arrived in Qatar on Sunday, officials said, for what could be the highest-level negotiations yet between the insurgents and American diplomats to end the long Afghan war.

The next round of talks, scheduled to begin on Monday in Doha, the Qatari capital, is expected to focus on the details of a framework deal that the two sides agreed to in principle last month, in which American troops would withdraw from Afghanistan in return for a guarantee by the Taliban that Afghan territory would never be used by terrorists.

The talks so far have excluded the Afghan government. American officials have said that any final agreement with the United States would require the insurgents to meet with Afghan officials and to declare a cease-fire to ease the burden of a war that is taking lives in record numbers.

Visiting Kabul before the next round of talks, Zalmay Khalilzad, the special envoy leading the American delegation, said he would be pushing the insurgents to agree to those two points.
Peace talks begin in Qatar between the United States and the Taliban.