PESHAWAR: The Taliban will not attend planned peace talks with the United States in Saudi Arabia this month, and want to shift the venue to Qatar, Taliban officials said on Sunday, seeking to fend off Riyadh’s push to include the Afghan government in talks.

The upcoming negotiations, the fourth in a series aimed at ending the 17-year war in Afghanistan, are scheduled between the leaders of the Taliban and US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad to discuss the withdrawal of foreign forces and a possible ceasefire in 2019.

Leaders of the hardline Islamic militant group have rejected the Kabul government’s offer for direct talks, despite growing international pressure in favour of the Western-backed Afghan government having a seat at the table.

“We were supposed to meet US officials in Riyadh next week and continue our peace process that remained incomplete in Abu Dhabi last month,” a senior Taliban member based in Afghanistan told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

“The problem is that leaders of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) wanted us to definitely meet the Afghan government delegation, which we cannot afford to do now, and we have cancelled the meeting in Saudi Arabia,” he said.

The Taliban want to change the venue for the talks to Qatar, he said, the political headquarters of the militant group that is fighting to restore strict Islamic law in Afghanistan and the site for earlier talks.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed the group has decided to cancel the meeting in Saudi Arabia, but did not provide information about a new meeting venue.

The United States embassy in Afghanistan did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Another senior Taliban leader said the group had explained to Saudi Arabia that it was not possible for the Taliban to meet the Afghan government at this stage.

“Everyone is aware of the fact that the Afghan government wanted the US and its allies not to leave Afghanistan and we have paid a heavy price to expel all foreign forces from our country,” he said. “Why should we talk to the Afghan government?” </s> The Taliban will not attend planned peace talks with the US in Saudi Arabia this month, and want to shift the venue to Qatar, Taliban officials said on Sunday, seeking to fend off Riyadh’s push to include the Afghan government in talks.

 The upcoming negotiations, the fourth in a series aimed at ending the 17-year war in Afghanistan, are scheduled between the leaders of the Taliban and US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad to discuss the withdrawal of foreign forces and a possible cease-fire in 2019.

 Leaders of the hardline Islamic militant group have rejected the Kabul government’s offer for direct talks, despite growing international pressure in favour of the Western-backed Afghan government having a seat at the table.

 “We were supposed to meet US officials in Riyadh next week and continue our peace process that remained incomplete in Abu Dhabi last month,” a senior Taliban member based in Afghanistan told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

 “The problem is that leaders of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates wanted us to definitely meet the Afghan government delegation, which we cannot afford to do now, and we have cancelled the meeting in Saudi Arabia,” he said.

 The Taliban want to change the venue for the talks to Qatar, he said, the political headquarters of the militant group that is fighting to restore strict Islamic law in Afghanistan and the site for earlier talks.— Reuters </s> After the Taliban’s multilateral talks with US officials in Abu Dhabi, it was decided that the next round of negotiations be held in the Saudi city of Jeddah, reports Tasnim News Agency.

Zabihollah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, said the group has no plans to hold peace talks in Saudi Arabia, but will continue its negotiations with the United States.

He said the Taliban will soon decide on its next round of talks with Washington authorities and will announce the details to media.

Last week, media reported that the next round of the Taliban’s multilateral talks with the US would be held in Jeddah with envoys from Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia in attendance. However, these countries have apparently failed to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table for talks with Afghanistan.

The Afghan government had already announced that if the Taliban refused to hold Talks with Kabul, the Afghan government would not dispatch a delegation to the Jeddah meeting.

This comes as the Taliban had already reiterated that its position had not changed and it would not sit down for talks with the Afghan government.

A former Taliban official says the group refused to hold talks with the US in Jeddah, and some people said the next meeting would be held in Saudi Arabia. He said those people made those remarks to gain concessions, but it is not yet clear where the next meeting would be held.

Many experts believe the Taliban do not trust Saudi Arabia because Riyadh had tried before to challenge the legitimacy of this group by holding a meeting of Muslim scholars. </s> Kabul - The Taliban will not attend planned peace talks with the United States in Saudi Arabia this month and want to shift the venue to Qatar, reported Al Jazeera on Sunday, quoting a Western news agency.

The upcoming negotiations, the fourth in a series aimed at ending the 17-year war in Afghanistan, are scheduled between the leaders of the Taliban and US Special Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad to discuss the withdrawal of foreign forces and a possible ceasefire in 2019.

Taliban leaders have rejected the Kabul government's offer for direct talks, despite growing international pressure in favour of the Western-backed Afghan government having a seat at the table.

"We were supposed to meet US officials in Riyadh next week and continue our peace process that remained incomplete in Abu Dhabi last month," a senior Taliban member based in Afghanistan told Reuters news agency on condition of anonymity.

"The problem is that leaders of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates [UAE] wanted us to definitely meet the Afghan government delegation, which we cannot afford to do now, and we have cancelled the meeting in Saudi Arabia," he said.

The Taliban want to change the venue for the talks to Qatar, he added, the political headquarters of the group.

Taliban Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed the group decided to cancel the meeting in Saudi Arabia, but did not provide information about a new meeting venue.

The United States Embassy in Afghanistan did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Another senior Taliban leader said the group had explained to Saudi Arabia that it was not possible for the Taliban to meet the Afghan government at this stage.

"Everyone is aware of the fact that the Afghan government wanted the US and its allies not to leave Afghanistan and we have paid a heavy price to expel all foreign forces from our country," he said. "Why should we talk to the Afghan government?"

The Taliban regards the US as its main adversary in the Afghan war and views direct talks with Washington as a legitimate effort to seek the withdrawal of foreign troops before engaging with the Afghan government.

The war in Afghanistan is the US's longest overseas military intervention. It has cost Washington nearly $1 trillion and killed tens of thousands of people. Diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict have intensified since Taliban representatives began meeting with Khalilzad, an Afghan-born, US diplomat last year.

Officials from the warring sides have met at least three times, but fighting has not subsided.

Afghan special forces have rescued 12 people from a Taliban prison in the country's south on the same day that the militants kidnapped a group of 15 government employees in the west, officials said.

The National Directorate of Security (NDS), the country's main intelligence agency, said in a statement that special forces stormed a Taliban prison in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand province and rescued 12 people who had been held hostage.

The NDS did not provide any further details on the raid in Helmand, a Taliban stronghold that is the centre of the country's opium production.

The statement came as officials in the western province of Farah said Taliban militants kidnapped a group of government employees.

Provincial council members Khair Mohammad Norzai and Dadullah Qaneh told the DPA news agency that the workers were kidnapped as they were heading to their offices on the outskirts of Farah city, the provincial capital.

Farah, located along the border with Iran, has been the scene of fierce clashes between government forces and the Taliban in recent months. </s> PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - The Taliban will not attend planned peace talks with the United States in Saudi Arabia this month, and want to shift the venue to Qatar, Taliban officials said on Sunday, seeking to fend off Riyadh’s push to include the Afghan government in talks.

The upcoming negotiations, the fourth in a series aimed at ending the 17-year war in Afghanistan, are scheduled between the leaders of the Taliban and U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad to discuss the withdrawal of foreign forces and a possible ceasefire in 2019.

Leaders of the hardline Islamic militant group have rejected the Kabul government’s offer for direct talks, despite growing international pressure in favor of the Western-backed Afghan government having a seat at the table.

“We were supposed to meet U.S. officials in Riyadh next week and continue our peace process that remained incomplete in Abu Dhabi last month,” a senior Taliban member based in Afghanistan told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

“The problem is that leaders of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) wanted us to definitely meet the Afghan government delegation, which we cannot afford to do now, and we have canceled the meeting in Saudi Arabia,” he said.

The Taliban want to change the venue for the talks to Qatar, he said, the political headquarters of the militant group that is fighting to restore strict Islamic law in Afghanistan and the site for earlier talks.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed the group has decided to cancel the meeting in Saudi Arabia, but did not provide information about a new meeting venue.

The United States embassy in Afghanistan did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Another senior Taliban leader said the group had explained to Saudi Arabia that it was not possible for the Taliban to meet the Afghan government at this stage.

“Everyone is aware of the fact that the Afghan government wanted the U.S. and its allies not to leave Afghanistan and we have paid a heavy price to expel all foreign forces from our country,” he said.

“Why should we talk to the Afghan government?”

The Taliban regards the United States as its main adversary in the Afghan war and views direct talks with Washington as a legitimate effort to seek the withdrawal of foreign troops before engaging with the Afghan government.

The war in Afghanistan is America’s longest overseas military intervention. It has cost Washington nearly a trillion dollars and killed tens of thousands of people.

Diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict have intensified since Taliban representatives began meeting with Khalilzad, an Afghan-born, U.S. diplomat last year. Officials from the warring sides have met at least three times, but fighting has not subsided. </s> The Taliban wants to change the venue of scheduled peace talks with the United States this month from Saudi Arabia to Qatar over Riyadh’s push to include the Afghan government in the negotiations, members of the Taliban declared on Sunday.

The upcoming negotiations, the fourth in a series aimed at ending the 17-year war in Afghanistan, are scheduled between the leaders of the Taliban and US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad to discuss the withdrawal of foreign forces and a possible ceasefire in 2019. Leaders of the hardline Islamic militant group have rejected the Kabul government’s offer for direct talks, despite growing international pressure in favor of the Western-backed Afghan government having a seat at the table.

Qatar, home to the Taliban’s political headquarters, has long hosted and legitimized political leaders from the terrorist organization.

“We were supposed to meet US officials in Riyadh next week and continue our peace process that remained incomplete in Abu Dhabi last month,” a senior Taliban jihadi based in Afghanistan told Reuters on condition of anonymity, adding, “The problem is that leaders of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) wanted us to definitely meet the Afghan government delegation, which we cannot afford to do now, and we have canceled the meeting in Saudi Arabia.”

Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and the UAE are the only countries that officially recognized the terrorist group’s regime during its five years of oppressive rule in Afghanistan and are believed to have significant influence over the group.

Another unnamed senior Taliban insurgent indicated that the narco-jihadis explained to Saudi Arabia that it was not possible for the group to meet Kabul at this stage.

“Everyone is aware of the fact that the Afghan government wanted the U.S. and its allies not to leave Afghanistan and we have paid a heavy price to expel all foreign forces from our country,” he told Reuters. “Why should we talk to the Afghan government?”

Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, reportedly confirmed that the group had canceled the meeting in Saudi Arabia but did not reveal the location of the new venue.

The U.S. has not commented on the change of peace talks venue.

Mujahid recently told Voice of America (VOA) its negotiations with the United States for ending “the war and illegitimate occupation” of Afghanistan remain on track.

“There has been no interruption in the dialogue process with America because ending the occupation of Afghanistan is now a compulsion for them [U.S.],” Mujahid told VOA.

In the wake of reports that the U.S. is considering withdrawing half of the estimated 14,000 troops deployed to Afghanistan, American Vice President Mike Pence recently told Fox News that the commander-in-chief is in the “process of evaluating” pulling some service members from the war-ravaged country.

The White House had previously dismissed news reports of a U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.

On social media, Mujahid reportedly appeared optimistic about the series of U.S.-Taliban negotiations in recent months.

“We can say with certainty that they indeed proved effective. They have given birth to hope that should the negotiations continue with such speed, then it is possible that foreign aggression be brought to an end, following which peace will be established,” the Taliban spokesman declared.

He defended the narco-terrorist group’s stance for not holding talks with the Afghan government, dismissing Kabul as the product of “foreign occupation” of Afghanistan, with no “authority or ability” to end to the war.

The Taliban is fighting to restore strict Islamic law, or sharia, in Afghanistan. Trump administration officials have come out in support of a ceasefire and relegitimizing the Taliban as an official political power. U.S. troops removed the Taliban from power in Afghanistan in late 2001.

The Trump administration has made “political reconciliation” between Kabul and the Taliban the primary tenet of its strategy to end the war, which started in October 2001.

In its latest assessment of the war, the Pentagon said:

In recent months, the United States, via Trump’s Afghan reconciliation envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad, has intensified efforts to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table.

Marking a major departure from previous administrations long sought by the Taliban, the U.S. is negotiating directly with the group. Khalilzad has met with the group on several occasions. The Taliban generates most of its funding from trafficking heroin, some of which is partly fueling the unprecedented fatal drug overdose epidemic in the United States.

The U.S. has conceded that it will not see a military victory in Afghanistan, home to the highest concentration of terrorist groups (20) in the world. </s> U.S., Taliban to Hold Soon Next Round of Talks on Afghan Peace

The U.S. officials are expected to hold soon next round of talks with the Taliban representatives on the Afghan peace process, sources close to the Taliban said.

Last month, the U.S. officials met with the Taliban delegation in UAE amid diplomatic moves to press for a negotiated end to 17-years of war in Afghanistan.

The special representative for Afghanistan reconciliation, Zalmay Khalilzad, led the U.S. team in the talks that included envoys from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia as well as the host country.

However, sources close to the Taliban told Ariana News that there will be no representatives from the UAE and Saudi Arabia in the new round of U.S.-Taliban talks which is expected to take place in the near future.

“I believe that the next meeting between the United States and the Taliban will yield positive results,” said Nazar Mohammad Mutmayen, a political analyst based in Kabul.

This comes as Saudi Arabia was expected to host Taliban’s multilateral talks with the U.S. in Jeddah with the presence of Kabul delegation and envoys from Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia.

However, these countries apparently failed to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table for talks with the delegation of the Afghan government.

Afghanistan ‘s High Peace Council said that they would not dispatch a delegation to Jeddah meeting for as long as the Taliban give them assurance of meeting their negotiating team.

“If we attend this meeting, the talks should be between the Afghan government and the Taliban on the Afghan peace process,” the council’s spokesman Sayed Ehsan Tahiry said. </s> KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban will hold a previously unexpected round of peace talks with the United States in Pakistan on Monday, ahead of scheduled meetings in the Middle Eastern state of Qatar a…

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban will hold a previously unexpected round of peace talks with the United States in Pakistan on Monday, ahead of scheduled meetings in the Middle Eastern state of Qatar a week later, the insurgent group said in a statement Wednesday.

The talks are aimed at finding a negotiated end to Afghanistan’s 17-year war. The Qatar meeting is expected to include a collection of prominent Afghan figures, many of whom attended a similar gathering in the Russian capital earlier this month.

U.S. Peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad did not attend the Moscow meeting but was expected to head the U.S. team in Pakistan. He met earlier this week with NATO and European Union officials.

There was no immediate explanation for the previously unscheduled talks but Pakistan has been under considerable pressure to use its influence over the Taliban to press the insurgents into direct talks with Afghanistan’s government.

The Taliban’s top leadership is believed to be in Pakistan, despite repeated denials from Islamabad, which also says its influence over the insurgent force is overstated.

Until now, the Taliban has refused to talk directly to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s government but pressure is mounting to bring them into an expanding circle of participants.

The unexpected talks in Islamabad will come on the heels of a two-day visit to Pakistan by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. In January, Saudi Arabia offered to host direct talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government but the insurgents refused to attend.

Meanwhile, Ghani this week chafed at the Moscow meeting saying an intra-Afghan dialogue would be better suited to Saudi Arabia, where Islam’s two holiest sites of Mecca and Medina are located than the Russian capital.

While Pakistan’s economy is likely to dominate Islamabad’s talks with the Saudi Crown prince, accelerated efforts to find a negotiated end to Afghanistan’s 17-year war were also expected to find its way into the discussions.

The newly announced 14-member Taliban negotiation team is also expected to meet Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan during the one-day visit “to hold comprehensive discussions about Pak-Afghan relations and issues pertaining to Afghan refugees and Afghan businessmen,” the statement said. About 1.5 million Afghan refugees still live in Pakistan.

Since his appointment last September, Khalilzad has stepped up efforts to find an eventual end to America’s longest war.

Copyright © 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed. </s> Alwaght- On Tuesday and Wednesday, Saudi Arabia hosted a conference on peace in Afghanistan attended by the international Muslim scholars. Reportedly, some 100 senior scholars from variously countries participated in the meeting, held in Jeddah and Mecca.

Afghan High Peace Council has commented on the meeting saying that the participants from Afghanistan did not represent Kabul, but were invited due to their influence and prominence.

The gathering has drawn some criticism and its success is facing serious questions.

Despite the fact that Riyadh has said that it is hosting a conference of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to “discuss ways of contributing to the efforts of achieving peace and stability in Afghanistan”, reports suggest that a considerable part of the expenses are paid and the arrangements are made by the Afghan government.

Mohammad Akram Khpalwak, the head of the peace council, has confirmed the reports of the Afghan government’s hand in the arrangement of the meeting and paying for it.

The conference, however, saw very important figures absent, casting doubt on the credibility of the meeting.

It was meant to discuss peace between the Kabul government and Taliban. But it appears to have digressed from its main path. Reacting to its organization, the Taliban published a statement calling it ceremonial and a show staged by the Americans to distract the public from the main issue which is the occupation of Afghanistan by the US-led coalition.

Neither Iran nor Pakistan, two crucial neighbors of the war-ravaged nation, made a significant representation at the summit. Only a scholar from Pakistan, Qibla Ayaz, a hardly renowned figure, attended the gathering. The absence of the Taliban, as a key party to any potential peace, as well as Iran and Pakistan, questions the validity and success of the conference.

An important issue is the surprise visit of the American Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Kabul a day before the meeting.

Pompeo visited the Afghan capital on Monday, met with President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan, and told him of the US readiness to join the peace process between the Afghan sides. Pompeo’s trip to Afghanistan was the first since he was appointed as US secretary of state late in April. The analysts hold that Pompeo’s meeting with the Afghan leader a day before an Afghanistan delegation traveled to Saudi Arabia signals Washington’s support to Riyadh’s initiatives on the conflict in Afghanistan.

On the other side, the Secretary of State’s trip gives credibility to the Taliban claims that the US is linked to the meeting and which suggest the Americans have coordinated it not the OIC. Riyadh hand in the peace process appears to be problematic. After all, the Saudis are US allies and having in mind that Washington’s strategy is a long-term military presence in Afghanistan, the Saudis are not expected to contribute to peace in a way that will raise questions about the legitimacy of the US-led presence in the war-torn country. In fact, what makes the conference subject to doubt is its arrangement by Saudi Arabia.

Riyadh is top on the list of the parties promoting extremism and backing terrorism in Afghanistan. Saudi-funded Madrasas, or religious schools, to propagate fundamentalism and nurture terrorist militias in the country.

Saudi Arabia is not new to support of armed rebel groups in Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden, the late leader of a-Qaeda terrorist group, referred to this support in part of his writings. He said that Saudi Arabia picked him as its representative to fight the Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

“I camped on the Pakistan border and received fighters from Saudi Arabia and other Arab and Muslim states,” he wrote.

Since the late 1970s, Riyadh embarked on a strategy of backing the takfiri ideology and spreading it as a foreign policy path to gain weight in the region. The policy gives the Arab kingdom a broadly-recognized title: the Salafi terrorism’s godfather.

Even after toppling the Taliban government by the US-led invasion in 2001 and formation of a new Afghanistan government, the Saudis preserved their role in the Central Asian country via boosting ideological groups with affiliation to Wahhabism through founding education centers. An example is the Nangarhar Islamic University. Reports suggest that the oil-wealthy Arab monarchy has spent at least $500 million on the university’s construction and operation.

In the new period, Saudi Arabia has updated its proxies in Afghanistan and is helping the ISIS terrorist group, which has been defeated in its bastions Syria and Iraq and is moving to Afghanistan as its new safe haven. A 2014 email to Saudi Arabia by the then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reveals how she warned the Saudi rulers that how their support for ISIS and other extremist factions in Afghanistan will fuel a regional rivalry.

With this track record of the Saudis’ backing for the rebel factions in Afghanistan, optimism about success, and even seriousness, of the two-day peace conference is highly pointless, many experts agree.

The Saudi-hosted Afghanistan peace summit is not the first meeting on the conflict-hit country hosted by a foreign party. Before that, Oman, Pakistan, Russia, and very recently China hosted similar peace conferences. But Taliban sent no representatives to the multi-party talks. As a result, none of them turned out as a success contributing to lasting calm there.

Other than Taliban absence, the non-Afghan nature of the foreign meetings is another factor hampering their coming to fruition. Taliban’s argument is that foreign-hosted conferences are subject to foreign meddling. The group’s view of these meetings is spoiled by a mounting distrust. This reality highlights a basic need: The peace negotiations should be returned to inside Afghanistan and allowed to be purely intra-Afghan.
Taliban officials say that they will not attend peace talks scheduled for next week in Saudi Arabia because they "cannot afford" to meet the Afghan government delegation at present.