Present at the signing ceremony was the Taliban's rarely seen Deputy Prime Minister Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who lost out in a power struggle last year to be prime minister.
"Now we live in a completely independent Afghanistan. The new government will be announced very soon," said Anaamullah Samangani, a member of the Taliban's cultural commission, reported Tolo News.
"Due to scheduling reasons, it is inconvenient for China to attend the meeting," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told mediapersons.
"China and the Afghan Taliban have unimpeded and effective communication and consultation," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a media briefing in Beijing.
Pakistan on Friday announced it will release former Afghan Taliban deputy chief Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar on Saturday, meeting a long-standing demand of Afghan President Hamid Karzai to advance peace efforts in the war-ravaged country.
Pakistan has granted some concessions to key Afghan Taliban leaders in its custody, including Mullah Omar's deputy Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, shifting them to "roomier facilities" and allowing them to make telephonic contact with their families.
The terror group is in touch with the international community and intra-Afghan parties to make government in Afghanistan.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are discussing the possible release of Taliban prisoners, including the outfit's powerful commander Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, to boost the Afghan peace process, foreign office spokesman Moazzam Khan said on Friday.
Pakistan may release top Afghan Taliban commander Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar to boost reconciliation efforts with militants in Afghanistan and to play a larger role in the endgame in the neighbouring country.
Pakistan has released 14 Afghan Taliban cadres, including 'commander' Anwar Haq Mujahid, and may consider a request by Afghan peace negotiators to free Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, to kick-start the Afghan reconciliation process. The 14 Afghan Taliban cadres were freed in two phases.
Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar leaked the whereabouts of Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden to American investigators, the Sunday Mirror reported.
The Pakistan government has turned down United States' request to hand over the Taliban's second-in command Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who was recently captured in Karachi.Pakistan has already made it clear that it would only hand over Baradar to Afghanistan if Kabul requests it to do so.Mullah Baradar is regarded as second only to Mullah Mohammad Omar, Taliban's supreme commander in Afghanistan.
The possible extradition of 12 Afghan Taliban militants, including Taliban No 2 Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, arrested by Pakistan has been stalled after the Lahore High Court dismissed petitions regarding the extradition.
The US is pushing for the transfer of captured Taliban commander Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar to an America-run prison in Afghanistan, apparently frustrated by his silence during interrogation by Pakistani investigators.
The arrest of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the second-in-command of the Taliban forces operating in Afghanistan, is being seen as a dramatic shift in the policies of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence agency, which had hitherto covertly supported some of the organisation's top leaders.But experts warn that by helping the Central Intelligence Agency nab Baradar, the Pakistan government and the ISI will lose the sympathies of Mullah Omer-led Afghan Taliban.
A Pakistani court gave three weeks to the federal government to submit a detailed reply on the status of 10 high-profile Afghan Taliban leaders who are in the custody of authorities.
The Afghan government was holding secret talks with the Taliban's No 2 when he was captured in Pakistan, and the arrest infuriated president Hamid Karzai, according to one of Karzai's advisers.
While the United States is terming the arrest of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, Afghan Taliban No 2, as a big success that could provide 'a wealth of information,' it sounds strange to many that the arrested militant commander was sacked from his post by the Taliban central shura well before from his arrest.
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari recently met 50 captured Taliban leaders, including Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, in a prison to assure them that their outfit had his government's full support and that they would be freed soon, a media report in London claimed on Sunday.
The man at the centre of the storm, Newsweek magazine, reported was Mullah Gul Agha Akhund, who is an in-law and long time confident of Mullah Omar. Akhund is brandishing a handwritten letter from Mullah Omar to claim to be the new second-in-command of the Afghan Taliban. But, his claim is being hotly contested by top military commanders of the outfit.
The arrest of Baradar, said to be second-in-command to Omar, is a major blow to the Taliban and is being described as a major success to Obama Administration's war against terrorism in the Af-Pak region.
Taliban also blamed the US for encouraging the Afghan elite to leave the country, Tolo News reported.
'We never talk about cut of trade ties with any countries. Rumor about this news has been a propaganda. It is not true'
Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Wednesday said it is too premature to congratulate ourselves over the UN Security Council adopting a resolution on Afghanistan, and cautioned that the possible axis of China, Pakistan and Taliban-controlled Afghanistan is a cause for worry.
The United States conducted an airstrike on Wednesday against the Taliban in Nahr-e Saraj of Helmand district of Afghanistan, the US military spokesperson said on Wednesday. This was a "defensive strike" to disrupt the attacks by Taliban, the Pajhowk Afghan News reported citing the spokesperson.
"The war in Afghanistan is over, now we will work together to rebuild this country," said Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid at a press conference in Kabul.
Time's profile of Modi says that in its 74 years as an independent nation, India has had three pivotal leaders -- Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Modi. "Narendra Modi is the third, dominating the country's politics like no one since them."
"We want to establish a government that includes all sides," Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah said, adding that they want an end to the war.
After 18 years of war, the US and the Taliban signed the peace deal in Doha on Saturday to facilitate intra-Afghan dialogue in Oslo this month and the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Afghanistan in 14 months.
Even though the Taliban has managed to capture Afghanistan and form a government, an internal rift between the faction has started emerging, according to media reports.
Mullah Muhammad Hassan Akhund is appointed as Prime Minister with two deputies Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar and Molavi Abdul Salam Hanafi.
China on Friday expressed shock at the deadly suicide attacks at Kabul airport, saying the security situation in Afghanistan remained "complicated and severe" and that Beijing will work with the international community to cope with terrorist threats and prevent the war-ravaged country from becoming a hotbed of terrorism.
The Afghan Taliban is struggling to find a successor to slain chief Mullah Akhtar Mansour.
The journalist was covering clashes between Afghan troops and the Taliban in Spin Boldak district of Kandahar city.
At the same time, Jaishankar said India and the US are on the same page on many issues relating to the recent developments in Afghanistan including apprehensions about the possible use of Afghan soil for terrorism.
The Taliban have confirmed that Pakistan's powerful intelligence chief Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed has met its de facto leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, amidst efforts by the insurgent group to finalise a government in Afghanistan.
China is a big country with a huge economy and capacity. They can play a big role in rebuilding, reconstruction of Afghanistan," Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen said.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, during his telephonic conversation with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday, discussed the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan amidst chaotic airlifts of Afghan civilians and diplomats by the US and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation countries before the August 31 deadline.
"If we have to recognise a government, the first thing is that we will need to wait until the government is formed," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said.
China on Monday expressed the hope that the Taliban will stand by its commitment of establishing an "open and inclusive" Islamic government in Afghanistan and will ensure a peaceful transition of power without violence and terrorism.
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