Afghan govt, Taliban agree to accelerate peace talks

The Afghan government and the Taliban yesterday agreed to try to accelerate peace talks, at a meeting in Moscow that followed an international conference there on the peace process, Afghanistan's top peace official and a Taliban spokesman said. The United States, Russia, China and Pakistan called on Afghanistan's warring sides to reach an immediate ceasefire at the conference, held in Russia just six weeks before a deadline agreed last year to withdraw US troops. Moscow hosted the international conference on Afghanistan on Thursday, at which the nations involved issued a joint statement calling on the Afghan sides to reach a peace deal and curb violence, and on the Taliban not to launch any offensives in the spring. They also said they "did not support the restoration of the Islamic Emirate."