Milley Meets With Taliban In Fragile Peace Negotiations
The Joint Chiefs chairman's meeting comes at a profound moment of uncertainty for the U.S.-brokered talks on Afghanistan.
By Katie Bo Williams
Senior National Security Correspondent
December 17, 2020
KABUL, Afghanistan — Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley this week met with Taliban negotiators in Doha, Qatar, amid an ongoing U.S. troop drawdown from Afghanistan and rising violence in the southern parts of the country.
The two and a half-hour meeting was the second time Milley has met with the Taliban as part of U.S. efforts to bring about a negotiated peace settlement between the insurgent group and the U.S.-recognized government in Kabul. He is the first known chairman of the Joint Chiefs to have met with the Taliban, which the United States has been fighting either directly or in support of Afghan security forces since shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001.
Milley also met Wednesday with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, in Kabul, as part of a four-day swing through the region that comes just weeks before a new administration takes office. For operational security reasons, Defense One agreed not to disclose the meeting until Milley was out of the region, at the request of defense officials.
https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2020/12/milley-meets-taliban-fragile-peace-negotiations/170839/
