Launch of direct Kabul-Taliban talks to be discussed at Moscow meeting: High Peace Council

The Afghan High Peace Council plans to raise the issue of launching direct talks between the authorities in Kabul and the Taliban movement at the second round of the Moscow format consultations on Afghanistan slated for Friday, council's spokesman Ihsan Taheri told Sputnik.

Later in the day, Moscow will host the second round of talks on Afghanistan, which will involve the Afghan High Peace Council. Representatives from China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and the United States have been invited to join the meeting. The political office of the Taliban movement in Doha will for the first time take part in these talks. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is set to take part in the event.

"We did not come here to negotiate peace. This will be a discussion between the participating delegations on how to start a dialogue and peace negotiations between the authorities of Afghanistan and the Taliban," Taheri said.

Taheri also expressed hope that a desired result would be achieved soon and it would be possible to organize a direct meeting between the Afghan authorities and the Taliban movement.

Afghanistan's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Sibghatullah Ahmadi, earlier told Sputnik that the High Peace Council representatives sent to the talks would not represent Afghanistan's government. This was confirmed by Taheri either.

The first round of consultations took place in mid-April last year, and was attended by deputy foreign ministers and special representatives of 11 countries interested in reaching a peace settlement in Afghanistan. The United States declined the invitation to attend, citing a lack of an Afghanistan strategy at the time.