{"id":48513,"date":"2019-10-23T01:56:01","date_gmt":"2019-10-23T01:56:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/10\/23\/taliban-say-new-intra-afghan-peace-talks-to-be-held-in-china\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T08:05:37","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T08:05:37","slug":"taliban-say-new-intra-afghan-peace-talks-to-be-held-in-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/flashpoints\/2019\/10\/23\/taliban-say-new-intra-afghan-peace-talks-to-be-held-in-china\/","title":{"rendered":"Taliban say new intra-Afghan peace talks to be held in China"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ISLAMABAD \u2014 A fresh round of intra-Afghan peace talks will be held in China next week, Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen said Tuesday, raising hopes for renewed negotiations, even as violence surges in Afghanistan\u2019s 18-year war. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The talks planned for Oct. 28 and 29 will be the first meeting between Taliban and prominent Afghans from Kabul since a July round of talks held in Doha, the capital of the Middle Eastern State of Qatar, where the Taliban maintain a political office. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Monday, the U.S. State Department said its peace envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad<\/a>, started a fresh round of talks with European, NATO and U.N. allies about ending the war. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Khalilzad will later meet with Russian and Chinese representatives \u201cto discuss shared interests in seeing the war in Afghanistan come to an end,\u201d the State Department said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For nearly a year, Khalilzad led the first direct U.S. talks with the Taliban. However, in September, just as a deal seemed imminent, President Donald Trump declared the deal dead <\/a>after a series of attacks in the Afghan capital killed more than a dozen people, including a U.S. soldier. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump continued to call for the withdrawal of the estimated 14,000 American soldiers still in Afghanistan, saying they had taken over the job of policing the country, a job the government\u2019s security forces should be doing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who made his first visit to Afghanistan last weekend, told reporters traveling with him that he believes the U.S. can reduce its force in Afghanistan to 8,600 without hurting the counterterrorism fight against al-Qaida and the Islamic State group. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Esper said any withdrawal would happen as part of a peace agreement with the Taliban<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\t