Afghan President monitoring Taliban peace talks; says Afghan govt presence essential in talks
President Ashraf Ghani has said that it was essential the Afghan government would be present in any potential peace negotiations with the Taliban as talks move to another ninth round of the process.
The United States and the Taliban officials resumed talks in Qatar on Thursday to firm up a deal enabling the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in return for the Taliban security guarantees.
About 20,000 foreign troops, most of them American, are now in Afghanistan as part of a U.S.-led NATO mission to train, assist and advise Afghan forces.
The two sides have held discussions over a potential agreement on four key issues including a Taliban guarantee that it will not allow foreign militants to use Afghanistan as a launchpad to conduct attacks outside the country, the complete withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces, an intra-Afghan dialogue and a permanent ceasefire.
