Direct talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban could begin in Oslo, Norway, August 7, 2019, Afghan officials and sources said on Saturday, July 27, 2019, marking a potentially crucial step in efforts to end the war.

The sources said the international community and the Afghan government were still awaiting word from the Taliban.

Washington has said it wants to see a deal signed by September 1, but any deal requires the Taliban to talk to Kabul.

The apparent development comes after Taliban negotiators sat with Afghan representatives at a so-called intra-Afghan dialogue brokered by Germany in Doha in July 2019.
 

The Afghan stakeholders had agreed to attend in a "personal capacity" so that the Taliban could continue to insist it was not talking directly to the Kabul administration.
 

Less than an hour after Mr. Rahimi’s announcement, the Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid rejected it by repeating the group’s long-held position — that it would turn to “intra-Afghan” issues only after its deal with the Americans was completed. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said any new talks would only begin after a deal has been forged with the US, and he reiterated the insurgents' long-held position that they would "not talk to the Kabul administration as a government".
 

Hours after the Afghan government’s statement on direct negotiations with the Taliban, the US Special Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad clarified that the talks will happen after the United States “concludes its own agreement” with the Taliban.  On Saturday evening, the State Minister for Peace Abdul Salam Rahimi said that direct talks between the Afghan government and Taliban will start within the next two weeks and that it will be held in a European country. Khalilzad also clarified in a tweet that the negotiations “will take place between the Taliban and an inclusive and effective national negotiating team consisting of senior government officials, key political party representatives, civil society and women.

The risk is that, since the Taliban have not yet formally agreed to talk to the government, and since they will not do so until they agree with the U.S. on troop withdrawal, they may feel compelled to deny that they have agreed to negotiate with the government. That would be a setback for the process.