Taliban: Doha negotiations achieve "significant progress"

Al-Jazeera correspondent quoted a source in the Afghan Taliban movement that the talks conducted by the movement since Monday with the US special envoy to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad in Doha is making "great progress."

The source said the island was agreed on two points that constitute a breakthrough in the talks, and may be announced later: a cease-fire and the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Two senior Taliban commanders familiar with the negotiations said the US special envoy's meeting with the movement's representatives was to last only two days, and his unexpected extension was "a positive sign."

One of the leaders said the talks "focused on the first two days on a road map for the withdrawal of foreign troops, and on ensuring that Afghanistan is not used to carry out acts hostile to the United States and its allies."

"The cease-fire mechanism and ways to engage in an internal Afghan dialogue are the two other major issues that are scheduled to be discussed on Thursday," a spokesman said on condition of anonymity.

Officials at the US embassy in Kabul were not immediately available for comment on the developments.

Sensitive stage
Members of the Supreme Council for Peace - a body overseeing peace efforts but not representing the Afghan government - said they hoped to hear positive news from Doha.

"When the talks take a long time, this means that the debate is at a delicate and important stage, and the participants are approaching a positive outcome. I hope this meeting will pave the way for an internal Afghan dialogue," Council spokesman Sayed Ihsan Tahiri said in Kabul.

Negotiations between the Afghan Taliban and the US envoy to Afghanistan were launched last Monday in Doha according to the agenda agreed upon at the last meeting between the Taliban and the Americans last month.

Taliban and US representatives have met four times since July to try to resolve a 17-year-old conflict in Afghanistan, but this is the first time Washington has directly confirmed its meetings.

US President Donald Trump has ordered a reduction of US troops in Afghanistan by 14,000, and has expressed enthusiasm for ending one of the longest-running wars in the United States since 2001 since the September 11 attacks.