Taliban, Afghan negotiators set ground rules to continue peace talks: Sources

Taliban officials and Afghan representatives have agreed on a code of conduct that sets ground rules to advance their peace talks in Doha, three official sources said on Tuesday.

The delegations, helped by US officials, agreed on Monday on 19 rules which make up a code of conduct that will be followed to stop the peace talks collapsing, the sources told Reuters.

Negotiations between the Afghan government and the insurgent Taliban started last month in Qatar’s capital and are aimed at ending decades of war in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile a suicide attack targeting an Afghan provincial governor killed at least eight people Monday, officials said.

Twenty eight people were wounded when the attacker rammed his explosives-filled vehicle into the convoy of Rahmatullah Yarmal, the governor of eastern Laghman province.

Afghan security forces inspect the exterior of a car after a suicide bomb blast in Gardez, Paktia Province, Afghanistan June 18, 2017. (File photo: Reuters)

“The governor was driving to his office when his car was hit. Four of his bodyguards and four civilians were killed, 28 wounded,” the governor’s spokesman Assadullah Daulatzai told AFP, adding that the governor was unhurt.

Interior Ministry spokesman Tareq Arian confirmed the attack and said most of the wounded were civilians.

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