Reuters- The Taliban agreed on Friday (March 19) to try to accelerate peace talks with the Afghan government, at a meeting in Moscow that followed an international conference there on the peace process.
A member of the Taliban's negotiation team Suhail Shaheen said, ''It is essential that we speed up the negotiation process because as a result of speeding up our negotiation process, we will reach a permanent ceasefire and peace.''
Moscow hosted the international conference on Afghanistan on Thursday (March 18), at which Russia, the United States, China and Pakistan released a joint statement calling on the Afghan sides to reach a peace deal and curb violence, and on the Taliban not to launch any offensives in the spring and summer.
The summit comes just six weeks before a deadline for the United States to pull out troops that have been in Afghanistan for nearly 20 years and President Joe Biden must soon decide whether to keep forces on past a May 1 deadline to withdraw, agreed with the Taliban last year under Biden's predecessor Donald Trump.
