US-Taliban Meeting 'Understandable And Justified' - Russian Official

 The recent meeting of the US lead negotiator and top US commander in Afghanistan with Taliban delegates is a reasonable turn of events in the Afghan peace process, the Russian president's special envoy for Afghanistan told Sputnik on Tuesday.

The US officials met with the Taliban's chief negotiator Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar in Doha on Monday. The parties discussed the implementation of the US-Taliban peace deal and the prisoner swap between the militants and the Afghan government.

"The Taliban movement and the Americans are abiding in principle by the deal they signed in Doha. The emerging problems are follow-up issues that stem from this accord, such as the release of war prisoners," Zamir Kabulov said, adding "this is quite normal, understandable and justified.
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The Taliban broke off talks with the Afghan government earlier this month after accusing it of dragging its feet on prisoner releases. The US promised the Taliban that up to 5,000 of its men would be freed in return for 1,000 Afghan government prisoners as an overture to intra-Afghan peace talks. But Kabul has insisted on a phased release of Taliban prisoners.

The Afghan government has so far freed 661 militants, while the Taliban released 20 Afghan officials on Sunday.
Zamir Kabulov, who heads the Russian Foreign Ministry's Second Asia Department, said the numbers were proportionate to the total number of prisoners held by each side. But he predicted that the swap would take long if the rivals continue freeing prisoners in small groups