Washington welcomes .. Kabul reveals the names of negotiators for dialogue with the Taliban

The Afghan government revealed today, Friday, a list of 21 negotiators, including five women, to dialogue with the Taliban about the future of the country after four decades of war, and Washington welcomed this step.

"This delegation is specifically charged with representing Afghanistan in peace negotiations with the Taliban," the Afghan Peace Ministry said in a statement.

The United States, which was putting pressure on Kabul and announced this week that it would cut one billion dollars in aid due to Afghanistan for this year, welcomed the "great progress" towards holding the Afghan negotiations.

"I want to congratulate the Afghan government as well as political officials and civil society figures for their compatibility," the US envoy to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, said in a tweet, considering that the formed team reflects the country's diversity and "the primary role of women."

The Afghan President, Ashraf Ghani, called on the members of the team to take into consideration the "supreme interest of the country and its principled position towards a united Afghanistan" with the aim of achieving "lasting peace and stability", according to the statement.

Talks and pledges
The Taliban movement has pledged to start talks with the Afghan government and discuss a possible ceasefire agreement contained in the agreement signed on February 29 in Doha with the United States, which also provides for the withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan within 14 months in exchange for guarantees.

But these talks, which were originally expected on March 10, were delayed because of a dispute over the issue of releasing a maximum of 5,000 Taliban prisoners in exchange for the release of a thousand Afghan security forces detained by the Taliban, a measure contained in the Doha agreement that was not ratified. It has a cable.

The two parties pointed to progress in this matter last Wednesday. They agree to "begin the release of the detainees on March 31," the US envoy to Afghanistan wrote in a tweet.

A spokesman for the Taliban political office, Suhail Shaheen, said that the prisoners' release 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.

It is the first time that representatives of the Taliban and the government of President Ashraf Ghani have formally met, and the two parties previously spoke on CCTV last week and Wednesday.