Qatar Presses Warring Afghans to Involve 'Formal Mediator' to Negotiate Peace 

ISLAMABAD - Qatar says it has formally proposed to warring sides in Afghanistan to agree to a third-party mediation for moving their stalled peace negotiations forward and reaching a power-sharing arrangement before U.S.-led foreign troops complete their exit from the country by a September 11 deadline.

The proposal comes ahead of Friday’s crucial meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and his chief peacemaker, Abdullah Abdullah, at the White House. Biden is expected to encourage all Afghan parties to “meaningfully” negotiate an end to their country’s long conflict. Mutlaq bin Majed Al Qahtani, the special Qatari envoy for counterterrorism and mediation of conflict resolution, said his government shared the mediation proposal last week with representatives of the Afghan government and the Taliban insurgency. He made the remarks during an international seminar this week in Qatar’s capital, Doha. The two Afghan adversaries have been holding peace negotiations in Doha since last September with the host government, among others, playing the role of a facilitator. But the process has made no significant headway, with each negotiating team blaming the other for the deadlock.