China invites Taliban led IEA for intra-Afghan conference in Beijing

China invited Taliban led Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) to take part in the upcoming two-day intra-Afghan conference which is to be held in Beijing. Zabihullah, IEA spokesperson tweeted on October 23 that China has invited a delegation to participate in the intra-Afghan dialogue in a conference that will take place on October 29 and 30. He further also said that earlier in the day Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban's co-founder, met with Chinese diplomats in Doha, where the group has a political office. 

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The US-Taliban talks

The talks between China and the Taliban will be separate from talks between the US and the Taliban. The militant group had been negotiating a deal with the United States that would have seen Washington pull thousands of troops from Afghanistan in return for various security guarantees. However, President Trump called an end to the talks after the group carried out a bomb attack in Kabul that had reportedly killed 12 people, including a US soldier. 

The militant group has refused to talk to the Afghan government as it believes that the country is a US 'puppet' although the government officials have taken part in the intra-Afghan dialogue as private citizens. Suhail Shaheen, the official spokesman of the Taliban, told an international media outlet that all participants will be attending the meeting in their personal capacity and they will share their personal opinions for solving the Afghan issue. He further added that it is not clear whether Aghan President Ashraf Ghani or his administrations would attend the conference.  

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