Russia hopes for Afghanistan peace after hosting talks

Russia hosted a peace conference for Afghanistan on Thursday, bringing together government representatives and their Taliban adversaries along with international observers in a bid to help jump-start the country's stalled peace process.

The one-day gathering is the first of three planned international conferences ahead of a May 1 deadline for the final withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops from the country, a date fixed under a year-old agreement between the Trump administration and the Taliban.

Moscow's attempt at mediation comes as talks in Doha between the Afghan government and the Taliban, still waging an insurgency, have stalled. Washington and Kabul have been pressing for a cease-fire while the Taliban say they will negotiate it as part of peace talks with the Afghan government.

"We conducted serious talks with all of the Afghan sides, the main leitmotif of which is that the Afghan sides understand and are ready to reach an agreement to establish peace in Afghanistan," said Zamir Kabulov, the Russian President's special envoy for  Afghanistan.

The Moscow conference is attended by U.S. peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, Abdullah Abdullah, head of Afghanistan's National Reconciliation Council, and Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. Representatives of Pakistan, Iran, India and China are also participating.

"The draft that we have seen I think is very comprehensive, well-focused, and it will have an impact and a very clear message," Abdullah said after the talks.

Let's talk, let's achieve peace, work together, live together in peace, maintaining our own different views but at the same time making a commitment that we don't resort to violence," he added.

Moscow, which fought a 10-year war in Afghanistan that ended with Soviet troops' withdrawal in 1989, has made a diplomatic comeback as a mediator in Afghanistan, reaching out to feuding factions as it jockeys with the U.S. for influence in the country. In 2019, it hosted talks between various Afghan factions.