President Ghani finalizes participant list for intra-Afghan talks in Beijing

The Afghan government on Thursday has finalized the list of participants attending the meeting on the Afghan peace process in China.

The date of the meeting is yet to be announced but the Taliban announced that senior leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar will be attending the meet.

On Monday, President Ashraf Ghani in a phone conversation with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi agreed to a meeting which will be held in Beijing and will include a Taliban delegation to discuss Afghanistan's peace agreement, according to Sediqqi.

"This meeting could...provide a process that paves the way for negotiation between the government and the Taliban," said Sediq Sediqqi, Presidential spokesperson for President Ashraf Ghani, as quoted by Tolo News.

"The date of the meeting will be announced by China. The Afghan government will soon share a list of its participants with the Chinese government," Sediqqi added.

As China will hold the next round of intra-Afghan talks in Beijing, delegations from the Afghan government, other Afghan leaders and Taliban will be chalking out the process for reconciliation.

"This meeting could...provide a process that paves the way for negotiation between the government and the Taliban," said Sediq Sediqqi, Presidential spokesperson for President Ashraf Ghani, as quoted by Tolo News.

The meeting was earlier scheduled for October 29 and 30 but Kabul had asked Beijing to delay the meeting due to unspecified reasons.

On September 2, the US and the Taliban concluded their ninth round of negotiations in the Qatari capital, with US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad saying that a peace agreement had been finalised "in principle".But on September 6, US President Donald Trump abruptly called off separate secret meetings planned with the Taliban and Afghanistan's president at Camp David.