Muhammet Tarhan
15 July 2021•Update: 15 July 2021
ANKARA
The Turkish foreign minister said Thursday that he discussed Afghan peace with US special envoy for Afghanistan reconstruction.
Mevlut Cavusoglu met Zalmay Khalilzad during his visit to Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan.
Cavusoglu tweeted that he "exchanged views on the Afghan peace process and regional developments."
Earlier, he also met Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and his counterpart Haneef Atmar.
Far ahead of Washington's initial pledge of a complete troop departure by Sept. 11, which was recently modified by US President Joe Biden to Aug. 31, the Americans vacated Bagram Airfield, the biggest military base in the war-ravaged country, and handed it to Afghan National Army earlier this month.
The Taliban recently claimed to have taken control of more than 85% of Afghanistan, with government forces surrounding and abandoning outposts.
The Afghan Defense Ministry, however, has rejected the Taliban's claims, asserting that hundreds of insurgents were killed in retaking the fallen districts.
