Abdullah, Karzai to travel to Qatar on Friday

KABUL (Pajhwok): High Council for National Reconciliation (HCNR) chairman Abdullah Abdullah and former president Hamid Karzai will travel to Qatar this Friday for talks with the Taliban.

The trip was previously scheduled last month but Abdullah went to the US with President Ashraf Ghani and some internal differences also delayed the trip.

A well-placed source, wishing not to be named, confirmed to Pajhwok that HCNR Chairman Abdullah and former president Karzai will travel to Qatar this Friday.

Some other individuals will also accompany Abdullah and Karzai on the journey.

Sources says, 11-member team of Afghan politicians is expected to travel to Doha by the end of this week for talks with the Taliban.

Abdullah Abdullah, Hamid Karzai, Yunus Qanooni, Karim Khalili, Mohammad Mohaqiq, Salam Rahimi, Abdul Rashid Dostum, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Sayed Sadat Mansoor Naderi, Enayatullah Baligh and Fatima Gailani are part of the team, sources said.

Earlier, the Taliban had said that they had invited Abdullah and some other politicians to Qatar for talks.  Taliban Qatar Office Spokesperson SuhailShaheen said they never stopped talks.

“For talks we invited Abdullah and some other politicians to Qatar to discuss matters that could help accelerate intra-Afghan talks and help resolve the conflict.”

He said the Afghan political leaders were yet to arrive in Doha, doubting their willingness for negotiated settlement.

Another well-placed source said the trip was twice postponed in the last minutes. A presidential source also confirmed the trip and added that a date for the trip had not been finalized.

Nh/ma