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US and Taliban resume talks on ending America's longest war

Published August 22,2019
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U.S. envoy for peace in Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad speaks during a debate at Tolo TV channel in Kabul, Afghanistan. [Reuters Photo]

A United States envoy and the Taliban have resumed negotiations on ending America's longest war.

A Taliban member familiar with, but not part of, the talks that resumed Thursday in Qatar says U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad also had a one-on-one meeting Wednesday with the Taliban's lead negotiator, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.

The Taliban member spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk with reporters.

Baradar is one of the Taliban's founders and has perhaps the strongest influence on the insurgent group's rank-and-file members.

The U.S. and the Taliban have held several rounds of talks in the past year on issues including a U.S. troop withdrawal, a cease-fire, intra-Afghan negotiations to follow and Taliban guarantees that Afghanistan will not be a launch pad for global terror attacks.