US envoy discusses Taliban talks with Afghanistan’s president

A US envoy has met with the Afghan president in Kabul to brief him on the latest round of talks with the Taliban as negotiators near a deal to end America’s longest war, AP reported an official as saying on Monday.

President Ashraf Ghani’s spokesperson confirmed that the meeting with American envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad, took place on Sunday night at the presidential palace.

Khalilzad had held a ninth round of talks with the Taliban in Qatar, which ended without a final agreement. He said over the weekend that the US and the insurgent group are “at the threshold of an agreement” – even as the Taliban attacked the capitals of Kunduz and Baghlan provinces in the north.

The Taliban spokesperson in Qatar, Suhail Shaheen, said that “we are on the verge of ending the invasion and reaching a peaceful solution for Afghanistan.”