Turkey to host 10-day Afghan-Taliban peace talks from April 24

UN, Qatar included in US-backed push to jump-start talks ahead of May 1 deadline for troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Afghanistan’s government and the Taliban will attend peace talks in Istanbul from April 24 to May 4 in a plan to jump-start a peace process and sketch out a possible political settlement, host Turkey said. The 10-day summit will also include the United Nations and Qatar as part of a United States-backed push to jump-start talks stalled in Doha ahead of a May 1 deadline for the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan. “The overriding objective of the Istanbul Conference on the Afghanistan Peace Process is to accelerate and complement the continuing intra-Afghan negotiations in Doha on the achievement of a just and durable political settlement,” Turkey’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.