The US envoy for peace in Afghanistan has told the BBC he was “not happy about” a controversial deal to release 5,000 Taliban prisoners in order to secure historic peace talks.

The Afghanistan government and the Taliban began on Saturday their first direct talks to end nearly two decades of fighting, a negotiation brokered by the U.S. as part of its plan to withdraw from its longest war.

President Trump warned in characteristically over-the-top terms during a political rally in Michigan on Thursday night that Joe Biden, if elected, would invite “terrorists” into the suburbs by raising the cap on the number of refugees allowed to resettle in the United States.

After decades of conflict, the Taliban and Afghan government will seek to negotiate a political settlement that could end the United States’ longest war.

The Afghan-Taliban and the US sponsored Ashraf Ghani government seem to be heading towards a deadlock, as very soon US, after its disastrous war with Afghan-Taliban , is slated to move out in 14-months, after its agreement with the Afghan-Taliban on February 29, 2020 1 , thus, leaving it in-between Ashraf Ghani and Afghan-Taliban to decide their future for themselves.

Taliban leaders told their government counterparts at the Afghan peace talks they wouldn’t seek to seize power and that their struggle was to free the country from foreign forces and establish an Islamic system.

An intelligence agency officer was killed and three others were wounded after a roadside bomb targeted a vehicle in Jalalabad city, capital of Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province on Tuesday, a provincial government spokesman confirmed.

The Trump administration’s envoy for Afghan peace talks has agreed to testify before a House committee after the panel threatened to issue subpoenas if officials would not appear at a hearing.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he is optimistic about the pace of peace talks between Afghan government officials and the Taliban and expects to see a full withdrawal of US forces from the country by the spring of 2021.

Two months after top Pentagon officials vowed to get to the bottom of whether the Russian government bribed the Taliban to kill American service members, the commander of troops in the region says a detailed review of all available intelligence has not been able to corroborate the existence of such a program.