Russia to host Afghanistan peace talks on Nov 9

MOSCOW: Russia on Saturday said it will host international talks on Afghanistan on November 9, with representatives of both the Afghan government and the Taliban, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Moscow said Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and the Taliban have agreed to send delegations to the conference. "It will be the first time that a delegation of the Political Office of the Taliban Movement in Doha will take part in the international talks at such a level," the foreign ministry´s statement said.

The Afghan foreign ministry, however, did not confirm that the Kabul government will attend the talks. "We are still negotiating and talking with the Russian officials (about the conference). We have not reached an agreement yet," Sebghatullah Ahmadi, an Afghan foreign ministry spokesman, said. Moscow said it had also invited representatives from the US as well as India, Iran, China, Pakistan and five former Soviet republics in Central Asia to take part. "The Russian side reaffirms its position that there is no alternative to a political settlement in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan," the statement said. Ghani -- who took office in 2014 as US-led Nato combat troops withdrew from Afghanistan -- announced Saturday that he will seek re-election in 2019. He is expected to present himself to war-weary voters as the only candidate who can end the 17-year conflict in the country.

Moscow has declared its readiness to serve as a platform for dialogue. In April 2017, Russia hosted an international conference on Afghanistan.

The US was invited to that meeting but did not participate. Russia in August proposed holding multilateral peace talks in Moscow, and invited 12 countries and the Taliban to attend a summit the following month. But the meeting was postponed after Ghani rejected the invitation on the grounds that talks with the Taliban should be led by the Afghan government.