US envoy heads to Qatar to press Taliban for end to offensive

Several rounds of meetings scheduled over three days between Zalmay Khalilzad and Taliban as armed group advances.

The United State envoy on Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, “will press the Taliban to stop their military offensive” at talks in Qatar’s capital this week, the State Department announced after the armed group seized a string of provincial capitals. “Ambassador Khalilzad will be in Doha to help formulate a joint international response to the rapidly deteriorating situation in Afghanistan,” the department added in a statement on Monday. The State Department said that several planned rounds of meetings were scheduled over three days to discuss the situation in Afghanistan.