Afghan gov’t delegation meets Taliban in Iran

Tehran hosts first significant peace talks in months in a previously unannounced meeting that comes as US forces leave.

An Afghan government delegation has met Taliban representatives in Tehran, the Iranian foreign ministry says, as the armed group makes significant advances amid a pullout of US troops. The high-level peace talks between the warring Afghan sides follow months-old discussions in Qatar that have been stalled by a diplomatic impasse and escalating violence. Even as officials faced each other across the vast tables in Tehran and Iran’s top diplomat pledged to end the crisis, fighting surged in Afghanistan’s western Badghis province.