WASHINGTON, June 18 (RIA Novosti) – Representatives from the United States and the Taliban will meet in the coming days for their first formal talks to try to find a peaceful settlement to the war in Afghanistan, senior US government officials said Tuesday.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity during a background briefing, the senior officials from US President Barack Obama’s administration said the meeting will take place at the Taliban’s new office in Doha, Qatar. The office is being opened to negotiate directly with the Afghan government, the officials said.
“The core of this process is not going to be the US-Taliban talks – those can help advance the process, but the core of it is going to be negotiations among Afghans, and the level of trust on both sides is extremely low, as one would expect. So it's going to be a long, hard process if indeed it advances significantly at all,” one of the US officials said.
The negotiations come with conditions for the Taliban, including severing ties with al-Qaida, ending the violence, and accepting Afghanistan’s constitution, including its protections of women and minorities, according to the officials.
The US officials also said the Taliban political commission, which is based in Doha, received authorization from Taliban leader Mullah Omar to start the talks with US and Afghan officials.
The news of the talks between the United States and the Taliban comes on the same day that US-led international forces handed over control of Afghanistan’s national security to Afghan forces, setting the stage for most foreign troops to leave the country by the end of 2014.
