After four hours of talks ... the Taliban confirm the release of prisoners at the end of this month

Taliban political office spokesperson Suhail Shaheen said that the release of the prisoners would begin on March 31, and that the movement would send its delegation to the Bagram base to provide assistance in identifying its prisoners and verifying the names.

Shaheen wrote - in a tweet on his Twitter account - that the movement's technical team held a detailed meeting with the International Red Cross, the United States, the State of Qatar and the Afghan government, which lasted four hours about the release of prisoners from both sides.

He added - in a statement to Anadolu Agency - that the movement held a meeting via closed-circuit television today with technical representatives from the Afghan government, where the meeting dealt with the exchange of prisoners to start the implementation of the peace agreement.

He explained that this is the second technical meeting of its kind with the government since the signing of the Doha agreement.

Shaheen revealed that a delegation from the movement will go to Kabul to identify the prisoners to be released, and includes 34 people from all over Afghanistan, so that each person represents one of the 34 states of the country.

The issue of prisoners was a major obstacle in the weeks following the signing of the Doha Agreement last February.

Initially, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani refused to release the prisoners, but he returned and said that he would release 1,500 of them as a "goodwill gesture", with 3,500 others released after the start of peace talks.

Pompeo is disappointed
For his part, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he was disappointed that the crisis between Afghan leaders had not been resolved during his recent visit to Afghanistan.

Pompeo stressed - at a press conference in Washington - that the continuing crisis between the Afghan President and his rival in the recent presidencies, Abdullah Abdullah, was a source of frustration for him, calling on Afghan leaders to neutralize their differences, and to take the country to the path of reconciliation and peace.

Washington and the Taliban signed in Doha on February 29 an agreement paving the way - according to a timetable - for the gradual withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan.

The agreement provides for the release of about five thousand Taliban prisoners, compared to about a thousand prisoners from the Afghan government.