PESHAWAR/KABUL: The United States and members of the Taliban insurgency are on the cusp of reaching a peace agreement as the two sides met in Doha once again today to flesh out the “final details” of a pact that could end the insurgents’ 18-year-long fight with the US-backed Afghan government, a spokesman for the Taliban said on Tuesday.
US and Taliban officials have been negotiating in Qatar since last year on an agreement centered on the withdrawal of US forces in exchange for a Taliban guarantee that international militant groups will not plot from Afghan soil. US negotiators have been pressing the Taliban to agree to peace talks with the Kabul government and to a ceasefire.
In an audio message sent to Arab News on Tuesday, Suhail Shaheen, the spokesman for the Taliban’s political office, said both sides had come close to an agreement during Monday night’s meeting that ended just after 10:30pm local time.
“Considerable progress has been made,” he said. “We are working on the final details of the agreement. As happens in such meetings, there are some points that need more discussion, hence we are meeting again today [Tuesday] at 10:30AM. Sooner or later there will be an agreement between the two sides.”
“Once everything is finalised, a day will be decided to formally announce the agreement in presence of the world media,” Shaheen said.
US. President Donald Trump is impatient to get US forces out of Afghanistan and end a war that was launched after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. But there are fears among Afghan officials and US national security aides that a US troop withdrawal could see Afghanistan plunged into a new round of civil war that could herald a return of Taliban rule and international militants, including Islamic State, finding a refuge.
On Tuesday, Afghan media cited unnamed sources to report that US and Taliban negotiators had agreed to establish “safe zones” for Taliban fighters once US forces started to exit Afghanistan.
President Ashraf Ghani’s government, sidelined from all nine rounds of talks in Qatar, rejected reports of the creation of “safe zones” for the insurgents.
“We are not of this opinion, that is not our understanding from the talks between the Taliban and Americans,” Sediq Seddiqi, Ghani’s spokesman, told Arab News. “On the contrary, our expectation is that any progress should lead to peace and cessation of war, a ceasefire that brings peace across Afghanistan and direct talks between the Taliban and the government.”
On Sunday, a Taliban leader and the group’s former ambassador to Pakistan, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, told Afghan news channel Tolo News that the peace agreement would be signed in a matter of days.
“Mullah Biradar would sign the agreement from the Taliban side,” he said, referring to former Taliban second-in-command Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. “The Americans have asked the Taliban to include in the agreement that the Taliban will cut ties with all terrorist groups in Afghanistan.”
Zaeef also said an inclusive intra-Afghan dialogue might be launched one or two weeks after the US-Taliban agreement.
However, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Arab News that internal issues of Afghanistan were not being discussed in the meetings with US representatives and intra-Afghan talks would start once the terms and conditions of a peace agreement were finalised.
Mujahid said that details of the peace talks would be made public only once a final agreement was reached.
Working on “final details” of peace pact, Taliban political spokesman says
Working on “final details” of peace pact, Taliban political spokesman says
- US representatives and members of insurgency in ninth round of talks in Qatar to end 18-year-long war
- Taliban spokesman Mujahid says internal issues of Afghanistan not discussed, no intra-Afghan talks until deal final
Rescuers search for missing sailors after US sinks Iranian warship off Sri Lanka
- US submarine attack stretched battlefield beyond Middle East, furthest point since war began
- At least 87 Iranian sailors were killed in the attack, while about 60 remain unaccounted for
COLOMBO: Sri Lankan rescuers continued searching for dozens of missing sailors after a US submarine sank an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean, as a second Iranian vessel sailed close to the island nation’s territorial waters on Thursday.
The Sri Lankan Navy has recovered at least 87 bodies and rescued 32 people after responding to a distress call on Wednesday morning from an Iranian frigate, the IRIS Dena, which was sunk by a torpedo fired by a US submarine.
A second Iranian vessel — reportedly carrying about 100 people onboard — was heading towards Sri Lanka’s territorial waters on Thursday, said Nalinda Jayatissa, media minister and Cabinet spokesperson.
“The government is taking necessary interventions to ensure the safety of those on board,” he told parliament.
“Sri Lanka is committed to international peace, particularly peace in the Indian Ocean. We are acting according to international law and on humanitarian grounds to safeguard regional stability.”
IRIS Dena, an Iranian vessel with a crew of about 180, was sailing in international waters as it returned from the International Fleet Review 2026, a naval exercise organized by India in the Bay of Bengal, when it was torpedoed.
The strike was the first use by the US of a torpedo against an enemy ship in combat since the Second World War. Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, confirmed the sinking of the Iranian warship by an American submarine in the Indian Ocean, describing it as a “quiet death.”
The sinking of IRIS Dena came as the US and Israel continued to launch air strikes on Iran after killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and senior Iranian officials on Saturday, as Tehran responded with counterstrikes against US bases in the Gulf region.
The attack off Sri Lanka’s coast, thousands of kilometers away from Tehran, has stretched the battlefield beyond the Middle East, its furthest point since the war began. At least 17 Iranian naval vessels have been sunk since last weekend, according to US Adm. Brad Cooper, who leads the US military’s Central Command.
Authorities at the National Hospital in Galle told Arab News that the rescued Iranian sailors were “out of danger.” One of those rescued remained in the intensive care unit, while most of them were treated for fractures and chest pain.
“They were sleeping at the time of the blast,” said a source at the hospital, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
“There is a language barrier. We find it difficult to communicate with the patients properly and have sought assistance from the Iranian Embassy in Colombo.”
Iran has requested the repatriation of the deceased Iranian sailors, according to Deputy Health Minister Hansaka Wijemuni, who said that authorities are now making preparations to do so.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that IRIS Dena was struck in international waters without warning.
“The U.S. has perpetrated an atrocity at sea, 2,000 miles away from Iran’s shores,” he wrote on X.
“Mark my words: The U.S. will come to bitterly regret (the) precedent it has set.”
