U.S. Officials Walk Out of Meeting at Presidential Palace in Kabul by Craig Nelson – Wall Street Journal
U.S. officials walked out of a meeting here that was attended by the top defense aide of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, in the latest sign of fraying ties between Washington and Kabul over negotiations with the Taliban to end the 18-year Afghan war.
The gathering Monday at the presidential palace of ambassadors of North Atlantic Treaty Organization members was convened to discuss the Afghan peace process, now entering a crucial stage as U.S. and Taliban negotiators prepare for another round of talks in the Gulf state of Qatar. When American officials spotted the aide, national security adviser Hamdullah Mohib, they left the room, sources briefed on the meeting said.
The snub came after comments by Mr. Mohib earlier this month in Washington in which he criticized the Trump administration’s chief negotiator, Zalmay Khalilzad, for purportedly keeping the Afghan government in the dark about developments in the talks, which constitute the most concerted attempt to date to reach a political settlement of the conflict…