After a visit to Afghanistan .. Pompeo meets Taliban leaders in Doha

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met in the Qatari capital, Doha, Taliban officials, on his way back from Afghanistan.

The US State Department said Pompeo wants to confirm, through a meeting with Taliban leaders, including Mullah Baradar, the movement's chief negotiator, that it will continue to stick to a historic agreement between Washington and the movement last month.

Pompeo met in Kabul yesterday, Afghan President Muhammad Ashraf Ghani, and discussed the peace process and the steps related to it and regional consensus on them, as well as the political and security situation in Afghanistan.

Pompeo made an unannounced visit to Kabul after video chats between the Afghan government and the Taliban sponsored by Qatar.

For his part, US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Pompeo had gone to Afghanistan in an effort to keep the peace process moving forward.

Esper declined to comment on Pompeo's visit, saying that the foreign minister would talk about the details of that visit upon his return to the United States.

On February 29, Washington signed in Doha an agreement with the Taliban, stipulating a gradual withdrawal within 14 months of all American and foreign forces from Afghanistan, provided that the movement fulfills its security obligations and begins unprecedented direct peace negotiations with the Kabul government.

However, these negotiations were delayed, as did the prisoner exchange between Kabul and the Taliban, which was stipulated in the agreement, while violence continues in Afghanistan.

Pompeo had attended the signing of the agreement in Doha, but without meeting or shaking the Taliban negotiators.