US envoy鈥檚 Kabul visit raises peace talk hopes
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Zalmay Khalilzad, the US envoy who led talks with the Taliban until negotiations collapsed last month, was in Kabul yesterday meeting top Afghan officials including President Ashraf Ghani.
His visit comes amid speculation the US is attempting to restart the effort to end America鈥檚 longest war, after the US President Donald Trump last month declared talks 鈥渄ead.鈥
Khalilzad鈥檚 arrival in Kabul coincided with the announcement that preliminary results from recent presidential elections will be delayed for nearly a month, a lengthy postponement likely to stoke political uncertainty and fraud allegations.
鈥淜halilzad met the president and briefed him about his recent activities,鈥 Ghani鈥檚 spokesman Sediq Seddiqi said. 鈥淗is viewpoints and the stance of the Afghan government for peace were discussed.鈥
The US embassy in Kabul declined to comment but officials said Khalilzad may next stop in Pakistan, which he also visited earlier this month and met informally with Taliban representatives.
Ahead of that visit, a senior Taliban source in Pakistan said that the group had not 鈥渂acktracked鈥 from talks, suggesting the ball was in America鈥檚 court.
Experts said the US may want to resume its quest to pull troops out of Afghanistan but first wants to see some sort of Taliban concession, such as a reduction in violence.
Delayed vote count
Ghani, whose government was cut out of negotiations, had sharply criticized the draft deal that was thought to be on the verge of completion following a year of negotiations.
Afghans went to the polls for a first-round vote on September 28 and initial results were to have been released on October 19. But more than a week after saying the Independent Election Commission would miss that deadline, commission chairwoman Hawa Alam Nuristani said the results now would not be released until November 14.
鈥淲e have already apologized for missing the date but this doesn鈥檛 mean failure,鈥 Nuristani said.
鈥淭his (election) is a fate-determining issue in the country and we cannot accept sacrificing transparency for speed.鈥
Officials cited several technical issues slowing the count, including an attempt to hack the German company that provided biometric machines designed to prevent duplicate votes.
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