ISLAMABAD – A Taliban spokesman said Monday the religious militia won’t attend a peace conference tentatively planned for later this week in Turkey, putting U.S.
efforts to get a peace plan anytime soon in jeopardy. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken previously said he wanted to see a peace agreement between Afghanistan’s warring sides finalized at a conference hosted by Turkey and attended by top officials from both the Taliban and the Afghan government.
Afghan government, U.S. and Turkish officials had said they intended to begin the conference Friday. It was to last 10 days.
No new date for the Turkey conference was set but time is running out on a May 1 deadline for the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops from Afghanistan in