Latest Afghanistan News
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US Scrambles to Salvage Afghan Peace Talks
Top U.S. diplomats scrambled Wednesday to salvage plans for preliminary peace talks with the Taliban, after Afghan President Hamid Karzai refused to participate in the U.S.-led talks in Qatar. Mr. Karzai, apparently irked by the opening of a Taliban political office in Doha, Qatar, also canceled negotiations with Washington on a troop pact governing U.S. presence in the country after NATO ...
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Kerry Karzai Talk Over Taliban Flap
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has spoken by telephone with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in a bid to defuse a row that threatens to scuttle renewed peace talks with the Taliban. Karzai on June 19 threatened to boycott U.S.-directed talks with the Taliban and said he was suspending negotiations with Washington on a pact aimed to address U.S.-Afghan relations after 2014. Karzai’s ...
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Afghan Government Backs Away From Talks With Taliban U.S.
A day after an announcement that the Afghan government would open negotiations with the Taliban, President Hamid Karzai reversed that decision, raising objections including the Taliban's use of its formal name at its new office in Qatar. Karzai also suspended talks with the U.S. over security conditions. Jeffrey Brown ...
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Will Setback in Afghan Negotiations Affect Long-Term Prospects for Talks
A day after a breakthrough agreement on holding direct talks, Afghan President Hamid Karzai backed away from announced negotiations with the U.S. and the Taliban. Jeffrey Brown talks with The New York Times' Rob Nordland, from Doha, Qatar, for more detail on the decision and possible next ...
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U.S. scraps $7B in military items it can’t bring home from Afghanistan
KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan -- Facing a tight withdrawal deadline and tough terrain, the U.S. military has destroyed more than 170 million pounds worth of vehicles and other military equipment as it rushes to wind down its role in the Afghanistan war by the end of ...
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UN stresses commitment to peace building process in Afghanistan
The United Nations on Wednesday reiterated its commitment to an Afghan-led and -owned peace process.The statement came when UN deputy spokesperson Eduardo del Buey answered a question from the press about the world body's response to the proposed peace talks in Afghanistan."The United Nations maintains that long term peace in Afghanistan can only be achieved through a political ...
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Afghan leader backs away from US-Taliban talks
Afghanistan's president said Wednesday he will not pursue peace talks with the Taliban unless the United States steps out of the negotiations, while also insisting the militant group stop its violent attacks on the ground after it claimed responsibility for a rocket attack that killed four ...
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Talking to the Taliban
A logic analogous to Northern Ireland's early peace process would also begin to be played out, with US diplomats starting three years of secret meetings through diplomatic back channels to lay the basis for talks. And, like the North ahead of key turning points, an elaborately choreographed dance was this week being performed: the Taliban opened a diplomatic office ...
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Afghanistan danger that security may be lost in transition
Afghan security officials attend a handover ceremony at a military academy on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, on Tuesday. Photograph: Rahmat Gul/AP ...
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Karzai Boycotts Taliban Talks Suspends U.S. Security Pact
Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Wednesday boycotted proposed negotiations with the Taliban, saying a day after the United States announced it would hold talks with the militants that the peace process had to be Afghan-led. Hours earlier, he suspended talks with the US about its troop presence in Afghanistan after 2014 when the NATO-led coalition ends its combat mission there. The ...
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US Scrambles to Keep Afghan Taliban Plan on Track Russia Backs Karzai
WASHINGTON, June 19 (RIA Novosti) – The United States scrambled Wednesday to salvage plans to bring the Taliban into Afghan peace talks while Russia threw its support squarely behind President Hamid Karzai after he angrily cancelled crucial security talks with Washington. Speaking at a news conference in Germany, President Barack Obama acknowledged early "friction" in the US ...
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Karzai says no peace talks with the Taliban unless only Afghans involved and violence ends
Top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, Joseph Dunford, talks to media representatives at the ISAF headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, June, 18, 2013. Dunford said NATO will support any positive movement to bring reconciliation between the Afghan people and Taliban. American officials say U.S. representatives will begin formal meetings with the Taliban in a few days at the ...
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Interview Taliban Spokesman Says Qatar Office Marks Beginning Of Political Track
Qatar -- Muhammad Naeem, a spokesman for the Office of the Taliban of Afghanistan, speaks during the opening of the Taliban Afghanistan Political Office in Doha, ...
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Karzai suspends security talks and accuses US of inconsistent statements
Hamid Karzai. Negotiations on a bilateral security agreement (BSA) between the US and Afghanistan began earlier this year. Photograph: S ...
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Afghanistan State Dept denies reports of US-Taliban talks
Afghan men on a motorcycle drive past Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers on guard outside Bagram military base. The Taliban on June 19 claimed responsibility for an audacious attack in Afghanistan that killed four US troops mere hours after Washington said it would talk to the insurgents about ending more than a decade of war. Reports of talks between the United States and the Taliban are ...
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US says no Taliban talks scheduled
The US has not scheduled talks with the Taliban, the US State Department says. A spokeswoman for the department said Washington "never confirmed" a date or place for a meeting with the Islamic political group, AFP reported. "Reports of a meeting being scheduled or on the books aren't accurate," Jen Psaki said. "We are now in consultations with the Afghan ...
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Afghans blast US over Taliban office
Muhammad Naeem (R), a spokesman for the Office of the Taliban of Afghanistan speaks during the opening of the Taliban Afghanistan Political Office in Doha. The Afghan Taliban opened the office in Qatar to help restart talks on ending the 12-year-old war. REUTERS/Mohammed ...
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Video Karzai announces suspension of security talks with U.S.
Afghan president Hamid Karzai has announced he is suspending security talks with the U.S., due to Afghan officials' concerns about planned peace talks between the U.S. and the Taliban. Just hours after announcing their intention to engage in the talks, the Taliban took responsibility for killing 4 American soldiers. Charlie D'Agata ...
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As Karzai blusters over Taliban more trouble in Afghanistan
Afghan President Hamid Karzai suspended talks with the US over a new Status of Forces Agreement, furious that the US is trying to join peace talks with the Taliban in ...
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Afghan officials say U.S. broke promise on Taliban office
By Hamid Shalizi and Dylan WelchKABUL (Reuters) - - Senior Afghan officials accused the United States on Wednesday of breaking written assurances to Kabul that a new Taliban office in Qatar would not be used as a de facto diplomatic mission.The accusation, by two senior Afghan officials speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, came hours after Afghan President Hamid Karzai announced the ...
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Afghans quit talks with Taliban before they begin
KABUL, Afghanistan - Less than a day after the Taliban opened a new political office in Qatar, the prospects for peace talks that it represented for war-weary Afghanistan faltered. The Afghan government said Wednesday that it wouldn’t to send representatives to Qatar after all, and that it was suspending talks with the United States over a key military pact. The problem: When the ...
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Obama Defends Taliban Negotiations Bid
US President Barack Obama defended Wednesday Washington's decision to seek negotiations with the Taliban despite protests from Afghan President Hamid Karzai. "We still believe you've got to have a parallel track to at least look at the prospect of some sort of political reconciliation," he told a news conference in Berlin. "President Karzai himself recognizes the ...
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Afghanistan Talks with the Taliban must focus on justice and human rights
The first round of peace talks with the Taliban is due to take place imminently in Doha, Qatar, where the armed insurgency has recently set up an ...
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U.S. Presses Taliban on Qatar Office in Bid to Save Talks
KABUL, Afghanistan ...
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Afghan President Karzai to boycott US-Taliban talks
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said his government would not participate in US peace talks with the Taliban, explaining that all such negotiations should be ';Afghan-led';. The announcement came just days before US-Taliban meetings were due to start in Qatar – and less than 24 hours after Karzai had said that he would send a team to take part. A statement from Karzai’s ...
Afghanistan Feature
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Why should American troops remain in Afghanistan?
Afghanistan is widely regarded, even by its own people, as a puppet state, and has little hope of breaking away from US influence in the foreseeable future, there is wide-spread resentment toward foreign troops, and increasingly loud calls in the states for a withdrawal of troops. But, like or not, these two countries have been tied together irrevocably, even before the war on terror.
Since the invasion of Afghanistan by allied forces in 2001, the country’s destiny has in many ways not been its own. Read more
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