Washington, Feb 5 (TIWN) US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Zalmay Khalilzad, Washington's special envoy for Afghanistan reconciliation, during which they "discussed the way forward" for long-lasting peace in the war-torn country.

Also in a separate tweet, Khalilzad, who has negotiated with the Taliban for 18 months to reach an agreement, said that during the meeting, he "had the opportunity to brief Blinken on the Afghanistan peace process in the context of our continuing policy review".  Thursday's development came as no meeting has been held between the Afghan Republic and the Taliban negotiators in Doha over the last 19 days after talks resumed between the two sides on January 5 following a break.  The Afghan peace talks, which started on September 12, 2020, following the US-Taliban peace deal inked last February to end the war, paving the way for the withdrawal of thousands of US forces in Afghanistan and facilitate the intra-Afghan dialogue, has made little progress to achieve the goal.