The NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Monday said that NATO is supporting the Afghan-owned and Afghan-led peace process.

"We welcome the agreement between the United States and Taliban, because that is the first very important step towards lasting peace in Afghanistan. And lasting peace in Afghanistan, we can only have if there�s intra-Afghan negotiations, an Afghan-owned, Afghan-led process," Stoltenberg said.

"And we support that. And I believe that the best way we can do that is to continue to train and help the Afghan security forces so they can create peace and stability in their own country themselves," he said.

He said that NATO has focused on enabling the Afghans to fight "terrorism themselves, to stabilize their own country."

"And there are many problems, many reasons to be concerned about the situation in Afghanistan, but there is a huge achievement that we now have a strong Afghan security force which is able to fight terrorism themselves," he added.

Stoltenberg also in a tweet said on Monday that he spoke with US President Donald Trump on important security issues, "including the situation in Afghanistan, our joint fight against international terrorism and the importance of keeping NATO strong in an increasingly competitive world."

The US peace envoy for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, and the commander of foreign troops in Afghanistan, US Gen. Scott Miller, met with the Taliban�s deputy leader Mullah Baradar in Doha on Sunday.

"Both sides talked about (the) speedy release of the prisoners and commencement of intra-Afghan negotiations," said Suhail Shaheen, a spokesman for Taliban.

"Dr. Mutlaq Al-Qahtani, Special Envoy of the Foreign Minister of the State of Qatar and his delegation also participated in the meeting," he added.

However, Shaheen did not provide further details of the meeting.

Sources close to the Taliban said that based on initial agreements between the engaged sides, the intra-Afghan negotiations will be held in Doha, a development that critics say will move the peace process forward if the talks happen.

The sources did not mention the time of the negotiations but said there is an agreement to release 5,000 Taliban prisoners from the Afghan government�s custody ahead of the talks.

The Afghan government has said that, to date, 2,710 Taliban prisoners have been released. The Taliban, on the other hand, has released 458 prisoners who the group claims are government forces members, according to information shared by the group.

The Afghan government, meanwhile, has said that it is prepared to send its delegation to the intra-Afghan negotiations, something that Khalilzad, who started his new trip on June 5, will stress on his trip.

LINK: https://www.ansarpress.com/english/18360

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