Top US general meets with Taliban for peace talks

ANKARA

Top US general met with Taliban negotiators in Doha, Qatar this week to discuss the reduction of violence in Afghanistan, according to a Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) statement released Thursday.

Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of JCS, along with negotiators from the Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation, sat down at a table with Taliban representatives "as part of the military channel established in the U.S.-Taliban agreement," Spokeswoman Cmdr. Sarah Flaherty said.

Milley underlined the need for an "immediate reduction of violence and accelerate progress towards a negotiated political solution which contributes to regional stability and safeguards U.S. national interests," Flaherty added.

Earlier this month, the Afghan government and the Taliban confirmed that the procedure for intra-Afghan talks has been finalized, a development that has been widely welcomed.

The announcement marked the first major breakthrough since talks between the Kabul government and the Taliban started in Doha on Sept. 12.

The talks are aimed at ending the nearly two-decade-long conflict following a landmark peace deal between the US and the Taliban inked earlier in February that calls for the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Afghanistan.