NPR: Taliban Meets With US Officials

Afghan Taliban have met with US officials to discuss peace, but the group refuses to meet with representatives of the Afghan government. The focus of the meetings in the United Arab Emirates is to end the war underway since the 9/11 attacks and the 2001 US invasion that unseated the Taliban. The Afghan government has offered to recognize the Taliban as a political party and proposed ceasefires – and so the group’s refusal to meet with Afghan government officials does not bode well for peace or a representative government. The talks come at “a dissonant time for Afghanistan, which has seen the acceleration of peace talks abroad even as violence remains rampant within its own borders,” reports Colin Dwyer for NPR. “The Taliban has launched coordinated attacks across the country in recent weeks, pushing back Afghan forces even as the U.S. maintains an active airstrike campaign against the Taliban's senior leadership.” For 2017, Afghanistan accounted for a quarter of deaths by terrorism, according to the Global Terrorism Index. The Afghanistan government suggests that talks should not proceed without its participation. – YaleGlobal