Zalmay Khalilzad, a veteran US policymaker who is leading President Donald Trump’s push to broker a peace deal with the Taliban, left Friday on a 17-day trip that will also take him to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Germany, Belgium and the United Arab Emirates, the State Department said. US envoy negotiating with the Taliban will hold new talks this month with the insurgents in Qatar, the State Department said Saturday, as momentum builds for a deal to end America’s longest war.
In Doha, he will resume talks with the Taliban after a break of around a month “to move the peace process forward,” the State Department said in a statement.
Khalilzad has already met six times with the Taliban in recent months as he looks to seal a deal under which the United States will pull out troops who were first deployed following the September 11, 2001 attacks.
The United States and the Taliban are believed to have largely agreed on the key demand of Washington from 2001 and again now that Taliban not allow Afghanistan to be used by violent extremists.
US envoy negotiating with Taliban to hold new talks
