On why the talks were abruptly called off, Kabulov dismissed Trump’s pointing the finger at the Taliban killing a U.S. soldier, saying: "Indeed, terrorist attacks by the Taliban took place before. We believe that the death of an American serviceman in the course of another terrorist act of the Taliban was only a pretext for the announcement by the ...

While the prospect of resumed peace talks between the United States and the Taliban remains unclear, US President Donald Trump has once again lashed out at the Taliban for its involvement in a recent bombing in Kabul that left at least twelve people dead, including an American soldier.

The U.S. has not said what was planned for Camp David, the wooded Maryland retreat that has hosted several peace summits, but the outlines of its intentions seem clear. A week earlier, U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad said negotiators had reached an agreement with the Taliban, adding that he would announce details imminently, pending President Donald Trump’s ...

The “agreement in principle” that U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad has hammered out in nine rounds of talks with Taliban representatives in Qatar would take the first tentative steps toward peace since U.S. and allied forces deployed to Afghanistan following the attacks on 9/11, according to senior Afghan and Trump Administration officials familiar with ...

This is a collaborative product of former US diplomatic officials who have worked on Afghanistan. We strongly support a negotiated peace in Afghanistan, a limited force drawdown as part of getting peace negotiations going, and the substantial force drawdown later that peace would allow.

But nearly five years after the departure of international troops from Kunar Province, the restive Pech Valley, named after its fast-flowing whitewater river, is peaceful. Despite occasional insurgent attacks, government forces appear to be firmly in control of the picturesque forested region.

In most of modern history Afghanistan has been a less developed economy, at some instances more underdeveloped than others, the problems with the Afghan economy, despite being home to rare mineral deposits that are worth trillions of dollars according to US surveys, is that it is yet to find a stable and sustainable source of growth that could lead ...

A suicide bombing at a wedding party in Kabul claimed by a local Islamic State affiliate has renewed fears about the growing threat posed by its thousands of fighters, as well as their ability to plot global attacks from a stronghold in the forbidding mountains of northeastern Afghanistan. The attack came as the Taliban appear to be nearing a deal ...

A spokesman for US Forces in Afghanistan, Col. Sonny Leggett, in a statement, rejects reports of changes in US operations in the country and says “we have no such orders and have made no such changes”.

He said that the peace deal between the US and the Taliban will be signed in the presence of representatives of the UN the Islamic Organization and regional countries after the return of the US Special Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad to Doha after Eid (August 14). Mr. Khalilzad has said that the US is seeking a peace deal which will facilitate a conditions-...

Attacks are increasing while the strength of Afghan security forces decreases. Schools are closing amid the violence, and no girls are being enrolled in many districts. Efforts to root out Afghan government corruption have either stalled, or never got off the ground.

The first main issue pertains to serious disagreements among the Taliban’s leadership about the peace talks. Like the Afghan state, the Taliban polity is marred by infighting, with its two powerful political and military commissions seemingly divided on the peace issue. Taliban hardliners believe they can still score a victory and have no military ...

Experts believe that the anxiety in India stems from the fact that even after providing $650 million to $750 million as humanitarian and economic aid, making it the largest regional provider of assistance for Afghanistan, it has been left out of the peace talks. Adding to concerns is that Pakistan has joined the U.S., Russia and China to strike a deal ...

In a house near the foot of the dusty mountains that surround Kabul, I meet a former government employee. She asks to remain anonymous because she fears a backlash. But she wants the world to hear her story. She says her former boss, a senior minister in the government, repeatedly harassed her, and one day when she went to his office, tried to physically ...

 A surprise announcement by President Donald Trump seemed to accelerate the expected time frame for U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan ahead of an all-Afghan peace summit planned for July 7-8 in Qatar. The gathering apparently will be held on Taliban terms as there will be no official Afghan government representation.

Libyan government fighters discovered a cache of powerful American missiles, usually sold only to close American allies, at a captured rebel base in the mountains south of Tripoli this week.

During an unannounced stop in Kabul, Pompeo says "the hour has come for peace" in America’s longest running war.

War is often filled with its share of mistakes and errors in judgment. It’s the nature of this lethal business. Some are the result of changing circumstances on the ground, while others are more systemic. The United States has committed more than a few during its 18 years in Afghanistan. Indeed, the entire war is a story of one mistake after another,...

Forty years ago, Afghans began fleeing the violence in their country and seeking refuge across nearby borders. More than 400,000 people fled the violence of the Communist-led Taraki and Amin government, crossing over into Pakistan. The numbers progressively swelled after the Soviet invasion on Christmas Eve in 1979. By the end of 1980, there were ...

In a rare statement, Afghanistan’s National Security Advisor Hamdullah Mohib has predicted that the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) will “break the Taliban’s backbone in four months” and he believes the stalemate in the battlefield is over.