The delegations of the Afghan government and Taliban issued a joint statement on Sunday saying that they will meet again and that they have issued instructions to expedite their peace negotiations, Qatar’s Al Jazeera TV reported.
The two delegations of negotiators, who have been in Doha since Saturday, said “the two sides committed to continue negotiations at a high level until a settlement is reached.”
“We will work to provide humanitarian assistance throughout Afghanistan,” the statement added, according to Al Jazeera.
Two decades of conflict have taken a turn for the worse as U.S.-led international forces withdraw and the Taliban launch offensives around Afghanistan, taking districts and border crossings while encircling provincial capitals.
Negotiators have been meeting in Doha since September but failed to make substantive progress with time running out before foreign troops’ full exit by Sept. 11.
The U.N. refugee agency estimates 270,000 Afghans have been displaced inside the country since January, bringing the number of people forced from their homes to more than 3.5 million.
