Citing credible sources, Afghan National TV (RTA) reports that the intra-Afghan talks between the Afghan government’s negotiating teams and the Taliban will begin an August 16.

The BBC also quotes Suhail Shaheen, a spokesman for the Taliban’s political office in Qatar, as saying that the group was ready to start the intra-Afghan talks within a week of the prisoners’ release.

Earlier, controversy over the release of 400 dangerous Taliban prisoners was seen as a major obstacle to the start of intra-Afghan talks.
President Ashraf Ghani had said that he could not release this number of prisoners due to committing serious crimes and delegated the decision-making process on the 400 Taliban prisoners to the Peace Consultative Loya Jirga.
The Peace Consultative Loya Jirga began on Friday and ended yesterday with the confirmation of the release of 400 Taliban prisoners.