Afghanistan’s govt to release prisoners from Taliban’s revised list in push for ‘direct peace talks’

Kabul plans to release more Taliban prisoners in the hope of getting peace talks going, a government spokesman said on Thursday. The insurgent group earlier provided the government with a revised list of several hundred of their detainees.

Disagreement over around 600 of the 5,000 prisoners the Taliban want released has prevented the launch of US-brokered peace talks aimed at ending nearly 19 years of war.

While releases by both sides have taken place, the Afghan government has said it does not want to release some prisoners, for security reasons. “They have given us another list, the release process will continue but direct talks should also start immediately,” Javid Faisal, spokesman for the National Security Council, told Reuters.

It was not clear if the Taliban would be willing to start talks based on the release of the prisoners on the list.