US to pull half of troops out of Afghanistan by April: Taliban

The Taliban say the United States has promised them to withdraw half of its troops from Afghanistan by April as part of a peace process in the conflict-stricken country, a report says.

Citing the Russian RIA news agency, Reuters quoted the Taliban group — which has a delegation in Moscow for talks with Afghan opposition politicians — as making the assertion on Wednesday, without offering more information.

The Taliban have been holding bilateral talks with the US, without the participation of the Afghan government. Kabul has said any ultimate decision for peace in Afghanistan must include Kabul. It has also derided the Moscow meeting.

A separate Reuters report cited the head of the Taliban delegation in Moscow, Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, as saying that no timetable had been agreed upon for the withdrawal of US troops yet.

“The timetable is not agreed so far, but it requires more discussion and more meetings so that we can decide on this,” Stanikzai said on Tuesday. “We hope that with their [Russians’] help, with their assistance, we can reach some sort of solution. We appreciate this.”

Stanikzai also discussed what he said was the Taliban’s hopes for the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Afghanistan.

“[The] America side... there are two things, two agendas we have discussed. One was the withdrawal of their troops, complete withdrawal of all foreign troops from Afghanistan... How they will withdraw, when they will withdraw, the timetable and which troops, and also the other side also. So two technical groups are working on that. It will start soon, their work,” he said.

The meeting was organized by the Council of Afghan Society, an organization representing the Afghan diaspora in Russia.

Last month, the US held talks with the Taliban in Qatar.

PressTV-Foreign troops to leave Afghanistan in 18 months: Source

The US special envoy for Afghanistan says major progress has been made in talks with the Taliban militant group.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has appealed to the Taliban to end the violence in the country, emphasizing that the use of US-led foreign troops to establish peace there has always been a temporary solution to the conflict.

Earlier, Ghani told Afghan broadcaster TOLOnews that the Moscow meeting amounted to nothing.

“The Moscow meeting is nothing more than a fantasy. No one can decide without the consent of the Afghan people. Those who have gathered in Moscow have no executive authority. They can say what they want, but who are they representing?” President Ghani said.

Despite the 17-year presence of foreign forces in Afghanistan, the Taliban militants still wield control over almost half of the country.

In his State of the Union speech on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump said his administration was holding “constructive” talks with the Taliban, and that it was now time to try peace.

The US has nearly 14,000 troops in Afghanistan.

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