Representatives of the Afghan government and the Taliban are planning to hold direct talks in Saudi Arabia as part of efforts aimed at ending the decade-long insurgency and bringing peace and stability to the war-torn South Asian nation, media reports citing senior Afghan officials said late on Sunday.
Although the Taliban has consistently refused to recognize or engage in direct dialogue with the government of President Hamid Karzai until recently, senior Afghan officials in Kabul were quoted as saying that the Taliban have agreed to participate in the planned Saudi talks. But the insurgent group is yet to confirm their claims.
The planed direct talks in Saudi Arabia come weeks after the Taliban declared having reached an agreement with the Government of Qatar to open a liaison office in the Gulf State's capital Doha for negotiations with the United States and the rest of the international community.
Soon after Taliban announced its plans regarding the Doha office, the U.S. Embassy in Kabul said Washington "supports an Afghan-led reconciliation process in which the Taliban renounce violence, break with al-Qaeda and support the Afghan Constitution, especially protections for minorities and women."
But Karzai was initially offended by the exclusion of his government from planned talks in Qatar and responded by recalling the Afghan Ambassador in Doha. Nevertheless, he later acknowledged that the negotiations could save Afghanistan from "conflict, conspiracy and the killings of innocent people."
"Afghanistan agrees with the negotiations between the United States and the Taliban, which will lead to the establishment of an office in Qatar," Karzai's office said in a statement issued earlier this month.
The latest move comes as several media reports indicated that some senior Taliban leaders have already arrived in Doha for the planned talks. Western nations, especially the United States, consider the dreaded militant group's willingness to enter into talks after a decade of insurgency as a significant step toward a peaceful end to the Afghan conflict.
Last year, U.S. officials had held secret talks with Taliban representatives in Qatar and Germany. But they ended without any breakthroughs. Those talks, which side-stepped Karzai, had enraged the Afghan leader. Karzai has often said in the past that any peace process must be Afghan-led.
Currently, Western countries led by the U.S. and Germany are trying to wriggle out of the costly war against the Taliban in Afghanistan. They believe establishing an "address" for the insurgent group outside the region of conflict would help speed up reconciliation talks aimed at ensuring lasting peace in the war-torn country.
Earlier peace talks had been marred by a series of incidents including the assassination of Burhannudin Rabbani, head of the Afghan High Peace Council that had been liaising with the militant group. Even though the Taliban denied any role in the Rabbani murder, the incident had led to mistrust between the group and the Afghan government.
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Market Analysis
May 15, 2026 15:25 ET Apart from the confirmation of Kevin Warsh as the next Fed chair, the main news on the economics front this week included key price data from the U.S. and the first quarter economic growth figures from major economies. Both consumer prices and producer costs have started to reflect the effect of supply shocks due to the Middle East conflict. In Europe, GDP data was in focus, while inflation data from China dominated the news flow in Asia.