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Negotiating the future of Afghanistan: representatives of the Taliban and the government at their meeting in Qatar
Photo: KARIM JAAFAR / AFP
To end their hostility, they meet in the emirate of Qatar: Taliban delegations and the government of Afghanistan met in Doha on Saturday for an opening ceremony.
This marked the beginning of the peace talks within Afghanistan.
The chairman of the High Council for Reconciliation, Abdullah Abdullah, described the beginning of the peace talks in Doha as a moment that will go down in Afghanistan's history as the end of violence.
"We have come here with good will and good intentions to end the 40-year bloodshed and to achieve nationwide and lasting peace," said Abdullah.
Both teams of 21 had prepared meticulously over the past few weeks.
The beginning of the talks was fraught with high hopes.
The government has made a ceasefire a top priority, but experts doubt it will be implemented quickly.
In the margins of the event it was repeatedly emphasized that there is still a lot of mistrust between the conflicting parties.
An agreement between the Taliban and the United States signed at the end of February obliged the Islamists to begin peace negotiations.
The United States wants to withdraw its soldiers;
US President Donald Trump only announced another troop reduction on Thursday.
That talks begin now is the most important admission that the Americans have been able to persuade the Taliban in return for their withdrawal.
The conflict in Afghanistan continued brutally until the very end.
An exchange of prisoners, which was supposed to build trust before the talks, had caused considerable delays.
The Taliban had not killed any NATO soldiers since the agreement with the United States, but they continued their fight against the Afghan security forces intensively.
For years, the Islamists had refused talks with Kabul, calling the government a "puppet of the West".
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dop / dpa