DOHA - Yousif Al Sada, Director of the Asian Department at the Foreign Ministry of Qatar late Sunday confirmed that Doha is hosting peace talks between Afghan officials and Taliban representatives in order to end the war in Afghanistan.
The dialogue "will be through open discussions about Afghan reconciliation between all parties in Afghanistan", the Qatar News Agency quoted Yousif Al Sada as saying.
He said that this dialogue Qatar is seeking is "to bridge the gap in viewpoints between all Afghan parties on all issues and topics that achieve security, peace and stability for the Afghan people".
The two-day dialogue between Afghan officials and Taliban is slated to begin in Doha on Sunday.
This comes after a 20-member Afghan delegation, led by Attullah Lodin, the deputy chief of Afghanistan's High Peace Council, also confirmed that they would hold meetings with Taliban representatives at a meeting initiated by international peace initiators Pugwash. Their aim they said is to thrash out their perspective on political matters, especially that relating to peace in Afghanistan.
A spokesman for President Ashraf Ghani, Ajmal Obaid Abidi has said that "these people were personally invited to the conference. The basis is that we have always said that when the peace talks begin we will not only inform the people but we will proceed based on the demand of the people."
Meanwhile, the monitoring of the five Taliban leaders in Qatar – who were released from Guantanamo - will end at the end of this month. Concerns have been raised over the release of these leaders as analysts fear they will return to the battle fields. The US has said they maintain close contact with Qatari officials over the Taliban leaders who were freed under a prisoner-swap agreement with the US last year.
A US State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke said that "we remain in close contact, as we would in any circumstance, where we transfer detainees," while explaining that the talks were about five Taliban prisoners released from Guantanamo.
Mullah Khairkhwah, Minister of Interior, Mullah Fazel Mazloom, the Taliban Chief of Army Staff, Mawlawi Abdul Haq Wasiq, the Deputy Director of National Directorate of Security, Mawlawi Noorullah Noori, Commander of Kandahar Army Battalion and Mawlawi Muhammad Nabi Omeri served positions during the times of Taliban. These individuals were released last year in return for an American solider from Guantanamo prison.
Recently, U.S. officials have warned that three of the named individuals have been in contact with Taliban about returning to the battle field. (Tolonews)