Taliban send delegation to Pakistan for talks on stalled peace deal

Visit comes weeks after US President Donald Trump said talks with Taliban in Afghanistan are dead

(FILES) In this file photo taken on July 8, 2019, Mohammad Nabi Omari (C-L), a Taliban member formerly held by the US at Guantanamo Bay and reportedly released in 2014 in a prisoner exchange, Taliban negotiator Abbas Stanikzai (C-R), and former Taliban intelligence deputy Mawlawi Abdul Haq Wasiq (R) walk with another Taliban member during the second day of the Intra Afghan Dialogue talks in the Qatari capital Doha. An Afghanistan peace agreement that the US seems close to reaching with the Taliban has prompted worries that President Donald Trump's eagerness to withdraw US troops risks worsening the  civil war and again creating a haven for terrorists. Trump said on August 17, 2019 he was pleased with talks on ending the war, 18 years after the September 11, attacks that prompted the US invasion of Afghanistan in the first place. / AFP / KARIM JAAFAR
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The Taliban have sent a high-level delegation to Pakistan for talks to resurrect a stalled peace deal, the group said on Wednesday.

A Taliban representative said Abdul Ghani Baradar, the head of the movement's political office in Doha, would lead the delegation in discussions with Pakistani officials.

The US special representative for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, travelled to Islamabad this week after discussions between US President Donald Trump and Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan in Washington the week before.

"These consultations follow discussions between the United States and Pakistan during the UN General Assembly in New York last week," a spokesman for the US embassy in Islamabad said.

The spokesman did not say if Mr Khalilzad was still in Pakistan on Wednesday or if he planned to meet the Taliban officials.

The Taliban's visit is part of a tour that has included Russia, China and Iran in an attempt to revive a peace process that Mr Trump last month called “dead” after the group’s fighters killed an American soldier in Kabul.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry and the US embassy would not comment on visits by the Taliban and Mr Khalilzad.

Mr Khan and other officials have been urging Washington to resume talks on ending nearly 18 years of fighting in neighbouring Afghanistan, where violence has increased in recent months.

Over the past year, the Afghan government was sidelined in the US-Taliban talks.

The rebels refusing to negotiate with Kabul officials because they consider the Afghan government to be a US puppet.

Taliban attacks continued unabated as Afghanistan held a presidential election on Saturday, weeks after the US-led peace talks collapsed.

The vote was marred by violence, Taliban threats and widespread allegations of mismanagement and abuse.

It was the fourth time Afghans have gone to the polls to elect a president since 2001, when a US-led coalition ousted the Taliban regime.

Pakistan said it would try to convince the Taliban to hold talks with Kabul when they reach a deal with Washington.

The Taliban also planned to follow up on Mr Khan's recent comments before a meeting in New York with Mr Trump, when he said he would try to convince the US president to re-enter talks.

It was not clear whether the Taliban delegation would meet Mr Khan.