KABUL (SW) – Analysts believe the U.S. is seeking avenues to delist the Taliban leaders from the UN Sanction List in a bid to expedite the peace process.
This comes as Zalmay Khalilzad, U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation, met he Kremlin's point man on Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, in Ankara, Turkey. In a series of tweets, Khalilzad noted the two diplomats agreed that all-inclusive intra-Afghan dialogue is essential to advance peace efforts, and Afghans should name a unified, inclusive and national negotiating team that includes the Afghan government and other Afghans.
“Amb Kabulov and I also discussed travel barriers to talks. We will explore options for securing UN travel waivers for Taliban negotiators to participate in peace talks”.
Commenting on this, Waheed Mujda, an expert on security affairs, said the U.S. is clearly seeking ways and means to remove names of the Taliban leaders from the UN Sanction List. He said the Taliban are concerned about lack of presence of influential Taliban in these talks. He added the Taliban leaders taking part in previous sessions had no authority on certain matters.
Ishaq Atmar, an analyst on political affairs, stated the U.S. has initiated diplomatic efforts to win support of the UNSC members for lifting travel restriction on the Taliban. He said it is not possible for one member of the UNSC to lift these sanctions.
These analysts believe such meetings by the U.S. Envoy would gather regional consensus for peace in Afghanistan. This was the maiden meeting between representatives of the U.S. and Russia on Afghanistan.
The Taliban are set to meet the U.S. representatives in Qatar on Monday 25 February.
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