U.S. and Taliban negotiators discuss how to end a 17-year war

(Image credit: AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

published 17 December 2018

Another round of U.S.-Taliban peace talks began Monday with the participation of delegates from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the negotiations' host, the United Arab Emirates. Their aim is further progress toward ending the United States' 17-year war in Afghanistan, America's longest conflict.

Officials representing the Afghan government are in the UAE but will not join in the talks, as the Taliban has to date insisted on negotiations with Washington alone. The Saudi and Emirati representatives are expected to help push the Taliban toward new concessions, potentially including future inclusion of Afghan state officials.

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.