The parties expressed their positions on how to achieve Afghan national agreement.
U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo discussed with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Monday in Kabul the development of the peace process in that country, as well as new steps in that direction. The essence of new approaches to ending the military conflict in Afghanistan has not yet been made public, Pajhwok noted.
The parties “have expressed their positions on how to achieve the Afghan national agreement and the peculiarities of the current political and security situation in the region as a whole”, – the agency says.
Reuters reported earlier that the purpose of the state secretary’s unannounced visit is to facilitate negotiations on prisoner exchange between the Afghan government and the radical movement “Taliban” (banned in Russia).
On Sunday, the Qatari Foreign Ministry informed that the Qatari and U.S. authorities facilitated the first technical consultations between the Afghan government and the Taliban on prisoner exchange. The conversation was held remotely due to concerns about the Coronavirus pandemic.
On 29 February in Doha, the United States and the Taliban signed a peace agreement under which negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan Government for a permanent and comprehensive ceasefire were to begin on 10 March. Prior to the start of inter-Afghan consultations, prisoner exchange was to take place as confidence-building measures, as agreed. On 18 March, the U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, called on the authorities in Kabul to urgently release the captives of radical supporters of the coronavirus.
On March 19, Afghan authorities ordered the national army and security forces to resume combat operations against the Taliban.