Ariana News Agency-\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n The meeting comes a week after Kabul and the Taliban said they had agreed that Doha would be the venue for the first meeting in their peace talks, known as the intra-Afghan dialogue \u2014 the first high-level meeting between the two sides after years of fighting.<\/p>\n According to the Foreign Office, in Khan\u2019s first meeting with Taliban political representatives since his appointment earlier this month, he met the head of the Taliban political office, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, and other senior Taliban leaders and discussed the Islamabad-brokered reconciliation process aimed at ending more than 18 years of war in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n \u201cPakistan will continue to play a role as a facilitator for reconciliation and peace in Afghanistan,\u201d Khan told a private media outlet on his return from Qatar late Friday, adding that Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa\u2019s recent visit to Kabul had \u201cgiven a new impetus\u201d to Islamabad\u2019s push for peace.<\/p>\n The US signed a troop withdrawal deal with the Taliban in February, but its attempts to usher the insurgent group toward peace talks with the Afghan government have been mired in setbacks. Violence, which surged in March and April, and disagreement over the Taliban\u2019s demand that all 5,000 prisoners be released, have also blocked progress toward resolving the conflict, in which Pakistan is a key player.<\/p>\n \u201cMullah Baradar said the release of prisoners according to the Feb 28 accord [with the US] would be a stepping stone to immediately start intra-Afghan negotiations,\u201d Khan said.<\/p>\n He said Pakistan considered Doha a convenient venue for the talks but it was up to the main stakeholders, the Afghan government and the Taliban, to make a final decision on the location.<\/p>\n \u201cOn its part, the government of Pakistan is fully committed to supporting the peace process,\u201d Khan said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Muhammad Sadid Khan, Islamabad\u2019s special envoy for Kabul, has called on top Taliban leadership in Doha, Qatar to discuss upcoming intra-Afghan talks and reaffirm Pakistan\u2019s continued role as a facilitator in the peace process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5498,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_mat_hreflang_tags":[],"addvideo":"","video_duration":"","farsit":"","target":"0","top_stories":"0","top":"1"},"categories":[2,7,12],"tags":[226,32],"class_list":["post-5497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-afghanistan","category-politics","category-security","tag-afghanistan-war","tag-taliban"],"acf":{"myctype":"change","target":false,"top_stories":false,"top":true,"farsit":""},"yoast_head":"\n