US, Taliban resume talks on ending Afghanistan war

A United States envoy and the Taliban on Thursday resumed negotiations in Qatar on ending America’s longest war.

A Taliban member said US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad also had a one-on-one meeting on Wednesday with the Taliban’s lead negotiator, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, according to AP.

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

Washington and the Taliban have held several rounds of talks in the past year on issues including a US troop withdrawal, intra-Afghan negotiations and Taliban guarantees that Afghanistan will not be a launch pad for global terrorist attacks.