The Taliban say peace talks with the Afghan government’s negotiating team will start on Saturday in Qatar

ISLAMABAD (AP) - The Taliban say the long-awaited peace talks with the negotiating team selected by the Afghan government are to begin on Saturday in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar. The announcement on Thursday came in a statement from the Taliban in Qatar, where the insurgents maintain a political office, and also as an announcement from Qatar’s foreign ministry. The spokesman for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani confirmed in a tweet that their delegation will be in Qatar’s capital of Doha for the talks. The talks - known as intra-Afghan negotiations - were laid out in a peace deal that Washington brokered with the Taliban and signed in February, also in Doha.