DOHA, Qatar – After 12 days, the contact groups of each the Afghanistan and Taliban delegations have come together Monday night, but once again failed to unite thoughts on forming the ground rules for peace negotiations.

While the Afghan team believe an agreement on the procedural rules might be reached within the next few days, critique suggests an unpredicted timeline for the negotiations if the contact groups remain cold about the disputed points.
“The contact groups negotiations will potentially resume tonight [Monday],” Ghulam Farooq Majroh, a delegate from Afghanistan, said prior to the meeting. “We will make efforts to agree on a procedure that will ease the negotiations. We hope to expedite the process and address the demand of the war-hit Afghans and we also hope to see flexibility from the other side.” 
“There isn’t any problem in the process that doesn’t have a solution. There is a need to work on the mechanisms and agree on one and begin formal negotiations,” said Sharifa Zurmati, member of the republic’s negotiating team, as quoted by TOLOnews.
Both sides have agreed on 18 of 20 articles for the procedural rules; the two main articles – religious basis for the talks and connection of the US-Taliban deal with the negotiations – remain unsolved.
The Taliban insist, first, to consider Hanafi jurisprudence for solving any possible dispute arising during the negotiations, and second, the foundation for the talks should be the peace deal signed with the United States in late February.
But the Afghan team has rejected the Taliban’s demands, while suggesting alternatives.
“Breaking the deadlock in the ongoing talks in Qatar has three solutions: First, more cooperation should be done with Americans to ease their [Taliban’s] stance. The second solution goes through Islamabad and you can work diplomatically with Islamabad to put pressure on the Taliban. The third solution goes through the battlefield,” said Idris Rahmani, a US-based analyst.
On September 12, Afghan and the Taliban delegations, including international allies, attended the opening ceremony of intra-Afghan negotiations in Qatari capital Doha, in a bid to end the “longest” war American fought in Afghanistan.