Working on presidential elections, peace deal later: Afghan govt

Kabul [Afghanistan], Sept 14 (ANI): The Afghan government on Saturday said that work on the US-Taliban peace deal will start after the presidential election scheduled for September 28.
"Taliban's attempt to visit Moscow and other countries shows the group has 'failed' in the (peace) process, Afghan presidential spokesperson, Sediq Sediqqi said in a tweet.
"The Taliban has lost the main venue for peace," he added.
Taliban representatives were present in Moscow on Friday to meet Russian President's special representative for Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, to discuss the situation of the apparently collapsed peace deal between the group and the US.
Earlier, Trump had called off the negotiations with Taliban and cancelled a "secret meeting" with the group's representatives at Camp David in the wake of this month's Kabul terror attack, which claimed 12 lives, including an American soldier.
Talks between the US and the Taliban began last October in Qatar.
The US side was led by its Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad, who has held a series of talks with the group, the Afghan government and other stakeholders to end the longstanding conflict spanning nearly two decades.
Prior to this, Khalilzad said that Washington had reached a deal 'in principle' to withdraw over 5,000 troops from Afghanistan in exchange for guarantees by the Taliban to not allow the war-torn country to be used as a base for attacks abroad. (ANI)