Afghan Taliban refuse to negotiate in Saudi Arabia

The Afghan Taliban have given up this month to visit Saudi Arabia for further talks with US envoys because of Ryad's willingness to include representatives of Kabul in the talks.

Islamist insurgents are demanding that this fourth round of talks with US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad be held in Qatar, where the Taliban have political representation.

The negotiations concern the withdrawal of foreign forces in Afghanistan and a possible cease-fire in 2019.

"We were supposed to meet US officials next week in Riyadh to continue our peace process that was unfinished last month in Abu Dhabi," a senior movement official told Reuters on Sunday.

"The problem is that the leaders of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates insist that we meet with a delegation from the Afghan government, which we can not accept for the moment, so we canceled the meeting in Saudi Arabia," he said.

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