An 11-member delegation comprising of Afghan politicians is expected to travel to Doha by the end of this week for talks with the Taliban, sources said.
Abdullah Abdullah, Hamid Karzai, Yunus Qanooni, Karim Khalili, Mohammad Mohaqiq, Salam Rahimi, Abdul Rashid Dostum, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Sayed Sadat Mansoor Naderi, Enayatullah Baligh, and Fatima Gailani are part of the team, sources said.
It is not known who will represent the Taliban in the talks.
This comes as Abdullah Abdullah, the head of the High Council for National Reconciliation, and former president Hamid Karzai, on Tuesday said they expect important steps to be taken in the peace talks within the next few days.
Karzai said that meaningful peace talks are expected to resume soon, but he reiterated that the Afghan government and the Taliban should not lose the current opportunity for reconciliation.
“You will soon witness the resumption of meaningful peace negotiations,” Karzai said at a press conference, calling on the people to not lose hope and to remain in the country. “Have patience, have plans, and move toward peace.”
The former president said the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan has deep roots in world powers’ interference for the last two centuries.
Violence and clashes continue in over 20 provinces of the country, but the two sides have not stopped the efforts for peace. US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad is in the region and has met with negotiators in Doha in the last two days.
The meeting will be followed by last week’s talks of an Afghan delegation led by former vice president Mohammad Yunus Qanooni with a Taliban delegation led by Abbas Stanekzai in Tehran.
Some politicians, including former president Karzai’s close aide Abdul Karim Khurram, said the meeting was “highly constructive” during which the two sides shared recommendations with each other.
