US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad was in Kabul on Monday to meet with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and other officials, as part of an ongoing drive to find a way out of Afghanistan's 17-year-old war. The Afghan-born US adviser said on Twitter he had spoken with government representatives and "discussed the urgency of making progress on intra-Afghan dialogue."
Khalilzad's visit to Kabul comes ahead of an expected new round of talks with the Taliban in Doha, reportedly due to begin in mid-April. Previous talks in the Qatari capital, where the Taliban has a political office, concluded last month with Khalilzad saying "real strides" had been made.
On the table were proposals to get foreign armed forces out of Afghanistan, and for the Taliban to guarantee the country cannot be used as a springboard for terror groups to launch future attacks.