The Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) on Thursday announced that an international conference including delegates from twenty countries, and international organizations, is expected to meet virtually next week to help build a foundation for a regional and international consensus on the Afghan peace process and to strengthen the prospects of the start of the intra-Afghan talks.

On Thursday, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani also held a trilateral virtual meeting with his Azerbaijani and Turkmen counterparts on the peace process in Afghanistan.

“As part of the upcoming meeting scheduled for next week, today the first virtual trilateral meeting was held between the presidents of Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan,” said Geran Hewad, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

This comes a day after the US peace envoy for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad on Twitter said that he had “good meetings” in Tashkent with Uzbek officials and others in the C5+1 and discussed the latest on the Afghan “peace process and the critical role Central Asia has played.”

"We discussed...the critical role Central Asia has played and will continue to play in pursuit of peace; how it will benefit from peace with increased regional connectivity, trade and development," said the envoy, adding: The US's Development Finance Corporation "is prepared to invest in the region's future."

“We expected the bilateral and multipartite talks to start soon, the Afghan government and the High Council of National Reconciliation should step up all efforts to promote a stronger consensus at the regional and national level regarding the issue,” said Zahir Tamim, a member of parliament.

On Monday, the Taliban and US delegations discussed via video conference Intra-Afghan talks and other issues related to Afghanistan on Monday, Taliban’s political office spokesman Suhail Shaheen said.

Shaheen said that the Taliban deputy Mullah Baradar and his delegation spoke with US Secretary Mike Pompeo via video conference and discussed foreign troops' withdrawal based on the Doha agreement, the prisoners' release, intra-Afghan talks and reducing the level of fighting.

This new development takes place amid reports that Russian military intelligence was supporting the Taliban to kill the American troops serving in the country.

https://tolonews.com/afghanistan/intel-conference-precede-intra-afghan-talks