US declines invitation to Russia-led talks on Afghanistan
Source: Associated Press
By MATTHEW PENNINGTON and LOLITA C. BALDOR
Today
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States has rejected an invitation to join Russia-led talks on Afghanistan because they are unlikely to help bring peace, a State Department spokesman said Wednesday, as the Trump administration prepared to appoint a diplomatic veteran as a new special envoy for the war-battered nation.
Russia said that the Taliban will be joining the Sept. 4 talks in Moscow, along with representatives of several neighboring countries. It will be one of the insurgent group’s biggest diplomatic forays since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan.
Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Sibghatullah Ahmadi told The Associated Press in Kabul that the government will not attend the meeting in Moscow, saying the peace process should be Afghan-led. He also said that “a peace process without the cooperation of the Afghan government would not be successful.”
The State Department official said that as a matter of principle, the U.S. supports Afghan-led efforts to advance a peace settlement. And, based on previous Russia-led meetings on Afghanistan, the Moscow talks are “unlikely to yield any progress toward that end.” The spokesman was not authorized to be quoted by name and requested anonymity.
Read more: https://www.apnews.com/b271ff1d4e2e4143a0645baac593068a/US-declines-invitation-to-Russia-led-talks-on-Afghanistan
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