Taliban say peace talks with Afghan team to start Saturday

The Taliban say the long-awaited peace talks with the negotiating team selected by the Afghan government are to begin on Saturday in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar.

The Taliban say the long-awaited peace talks with the negotiating team selected by the Afghan government are to begin on Saturday in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar. The announcement on Thursday came as a statement from the Taliban in Qatar, where the insurgents maintain a political office and was also announced by Qatar's foreign ministry.

Sediq Sediqqi, spokesman for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, confirmed in a tweet that their delegation will be in Qatar's capital of Doha for the talks. The talks — known as intra-Afghan negotiations — were laid out in a peace deal that Washington brokered with the Taliban and signed in February, also in Doha.

That deal aims to end Afghanistan's protracted war and bring American troops home while the intra-Afghan talks are to set a road map for post-war society in Afghanistan.