The officials said the US and Taliban representatives will hold bilateral meetings, then it is expected that Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s High Peace Council will follow up with its own talks a few days later....
The Taliban had previously said that they would not countenance peace talks with the Karzai government, which they consider a stooge of the United States and other Western nations.
◼ White House: We aren’t demanding Taliban cut ties with al Qaeda --- yet - Joel Gehrke/Washington Examiner @joelmentum
“[W]e’ve long had a demand on the Taliban that they make a statement that distances themselves from the movement from international terrorism, but made clear that we didn’t expect immediately for them to break ties with al Qaeda, because that’s an outcome of the negotiation process,” a senior administration official told reporters during a background briefing on Afghanistan. “So the statement that we expect today is this first step in distancing them, distancing the movement from international terrorism. But it’s not as far as [we] will demand them to go at the end of the process.”
◼ Talking to the Taliban: Violence against women not on the cards - france24 11/25/10
