RT - The US envoy leading negotiations with the Taliban met with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in Kabul on Wednesday, amid a renewed push to reach an accord with the insurgents. US special representative for Afghanistan reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad and Ghani discussed several topics, including the need for a ceasefire, the president�s spokesman Sediq Seddiqi said.
Khalilzad has spent more than a year leading a push for a deal with the Taliban that would see the US reduce its military footprint in Afghanistan in return for security guarantees from the insurgents.
Iran�s top security official said on Wednesday that Tehran opposed US negotiations with Afghanistan�s Taliban, as the talks excluded the Afghan people and government.
�Any strategy, any decision or plan without the participation of the Afghan people is wrong and doomed to failure,� said Rear Admiral Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran�s Supreme National Security Council. �The Taliban are a reality of the Afghan people that cannot be ignored. But are all Afghans Taliban? No,� AFP quoted him as saying.