Afghanistan’s Chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation Abdullah Abdullah will visit India later this week and will meet with the country’s top leadership to discuss intra-Afghan peace negotiations.

Heavy clashes are currently underway between the Afghan security forces and the Taliban in Qulburs on the Takhar-Kunduz highway, officials have confirmed.

President Ashraf Ghani has called on the Taliban to play a positive role in the peace process and to work to “bring security” in the country. Addressing a gathering in Paktika on Saturday, Ghani said: “Taliban are negative forces and they show their presence by killing people.”

Iran has exported over $1 billion worth of goods to Afghanistan, through Dogharoon Special Economic Zone, over the past six months.

Zalmay Khalilzad, the United States’ special envoy for Afghanistan reconciliation, stepped in this week to end the deadlock in Doha and said the US “will not walk away” from the war-torn country should the intra-Afghan negotiations fail.

Somalia Federal govt and all member states reached long-awaited agreement on electoral framework; Al-Shabaab attacks continued in south, centre and capital Mogadishu.

Iran says that the Khaf-Herat railway border stations will be completed in less than three months.

US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad met with the Taliban deputy leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar and their chief negotiator Mawlawi Abdul Hakim in Doha on Thursday night.

Resolute Support Commander General Scott Miller said that the level of violence in Afghanistan is too high, urging the Taliban “to lower their violence.”

An Afghan official says at least nine people were killed when a suicide car bomber attacked a military checkpoint in the southern province of Helmand.