A spokesman for the Afghan Taliban has said the group is close to reaching an agreement with the United States on the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan.

Spokesman Suhail Shaheen made the comment in Doha, Qatar, following the second day of negotiations with U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad on February 26.

"If we do not reach a solution in this round of talks, then we will in the next round of talks," he told AP.

Khalilzad's past rounds of talks with the Taliban focused on U.S. troop withdrawal in exchange for guarantees of no attacks against the United States, but it was unclear how close he was on a deal on those issues.

He said that in exchange for a U.S. withdrawal, the Taliban would offer guarantees that Afghanistan would not be used as a staging area for anti-American attacks.

Shaheen said it was very important that Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar was in Doha for the talks, saying it showed "how much importance we are giving to these talks and how [high] expectations are."

Khalilzad did not comment on the February 26 round, but he posted on Twitter on February 25 that this round of talks could be "a significant moment" in the process of winding down the 17-year U.S. war in Afghanistan.

In the past, Khalilzad has tried to pressure the Taliban to hold direct talks with the government of Afghanistan, which the Taliban considers a U.S. puppet.

Earlier on February 26, the Afghan government said that nine members of a government-back militia had been mistakenly killed in an air strike in the eastern province of Ghazni.

Based on reporting by AP, dpa, and TOLOnews

The Washington Post is reporting that a U.S. military agency blocked the Internet access of a Russian firm that intelligence agencies believed was trying to influence the 2018 U.S. midterm elections.

Citing unnamed security officials, the newspaper reported that U.S. Cyber Command cut off Internet access to the St. Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency on Election Day in November 2018 and for a few days afterward.

There was no independent confirmation of the Post's report. No Russian media reported on the alleged outage, and there was no public statement from Russian government officials.

Cyber Command is a division of the U.S. Department of Defense, similar to U.S. European Command or Central Command. Founded in 2009, it shares a headquarters and leadership with the National Security Agency, the main U.S. signals intelligence agency.

Owned by a Kremlin-connected oligarch named Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Internet Research Agency came to be known as the Russian troll factory for its alleged efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

In 2018, Special Counsel Robert Mueller bought an indictment against the agency, along with Prigozhin and two other firms controlled by Prigozhin

According the Post, Prigozhin responded to questions with a statement published on VK, the Russian equivalent of Facebook: “I cannot comment on the work of the Internet Research Agency in any way because I have no relation to it.”

The reported move by Cyber Command came amid other efforts by the United States to increase the deterrent effects of its cyber capabilities, which independent experts say are formidable.

In late 2018, Cyber Command reportedly sent troops to Montenegro, Macedonia, and Ukraine to provide cybersecurity assistance and collect samples of malware believed to have been generated by Russian military intelligence, the GRU.

In October 2018, The New York Times reported that Cyber Command was targeting individual Russian agents with direct messages telling them that they had been identified and were being monitored.

With reporting by The Washington Post and The New York Times

An explosion at a clinic in Uzbekistan's eastern city of Andijon has injured 22 people.

Uzbekistan's Emergency Ministry says a blast on February 26 in the boiler room at Andijon's central clinic injured 18 schoolchildren and four teachers who were in the X-ray unit for regular checkups.

According to the statement, a malfunction of the boiler's equipment might have caused that blast in the midmorning.

A physician at the clinic told RFE/RL that the explosion was very powerful.

"The boiler room and the X-ray room are located at the back of the building. Schoolchildren from School No.4 were being examined in the X-ray room when the explosion took place. The blast was so strong that we thought it was a bomb," the doctor said.

Local authorities have established a special commission to investigate the explosion.

A choral reinterpretation of a Cold War ditty depicting a Russian nuclear attack on Washington has variously drawn wild cheers, contrition, and ridicule for its glib message amid mounting nuclear tensions between Russia and the West.

The St. Petersburg Concert Choir capped its appearance in that northern capital's main cathedral on Defenders of the Fatherland Day with the song On The Wages Of Servicemen, which was written in 1980 by singer-songwriter Andrei Kozlovsky:

The song's first verse describes a nuclear submarine with "a dozen little bombs of 100 megatons each" crossing the Atlantic.

"I call to the targeting officer," the lyric goes, "'Take aim, Petrov, at Washington!'"

It continues in the same spirit and ends with the line, "May the land of the enemy burn to pieces."

The St. Petersburg eparchy of the Russian Orthodox Church eventually expressed regret over the February 23 show.

"Choir performances are held regularly in St. Isaac's Cathedral, and the fact that appropriate music is performed is not a problem," the press office of the Petersburg metropolitan said on February 26. "But this song performed by a fairly well-known choir, of course, is surprising."

"We regret that this happened in St. Petersburg, and particularly in St. Isaac's," the statement concluded.

When it was written, Kozlovsky's song humorously referenced the awesome responsibilities carried out by Soviet servicemen for paltry wages.

"I can do anything for 3 rubles," goes the refrain.

The performance stuck a nerve with many observers as video of it went viral on social media. It comes at a time of elevated nuclear tensions between the United States and Russia as Washington has accused Moscow of violating the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty and announced its withdrawal from that 1987 agreement.

During his state-of-the-nation address to the Federal Assembly on February 20, President Vladimir Putin praised new Russian high-tech nuclear weapons and said: "Our American colleagues have tried to gain absolute military supremacy by creating a global missile-defense system. They need to give up such illusions. Our response will always be real and effective."

On February 23, state television commentator Dmitry Kiselyov ran a bellicose segment that showed a map of the United States depicting targets he said would be hit in the event of a nuclear war, including the Pentagon and the U.S. presidential retreat Camp David outside Washington.

Nonetheless, Vladimir Berletsov, director of the St. Petersburg Concert Choir, called critics of the performance "f***ing idiots," noting that "the audience gave a standing ovation."

Igor Stakheyev, press secretary of the St. Isaac's museum complex, told the website znak.com that "the song was definitely inappropriate."

"The museum director is awaiting an explanation from the management of the choir," he added.

St. Petersburg Archdeacon Andrei Kurayev noted that in Soviet times, the song "was taken as satire of Soviet propaganda."

"But these days, in such a super-serious performance, there is no way to take it as a joke," he added.

With reporting by znak.com, The Insider, and Interfax

U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un both arrived in Vietnam February 26 for a second summit.

The two leaders will meet in Hanoi on February 27-28 to discuss North Korea's nuclear-weapons and missile programs.

There has been speculation that the two leaders would discuss agreeing to a formal end to the Korean War, which was frozen by an armistice agreement in 1953.

Trump flew into Vietnam's capital, Hanoi, on Air Force One.

Kim arrived by train early in the day after a three-day, 3,000-kilometer journey from North Korea's capital, Pyongyang, through China. He completed the last leg of his journey from a border station to Hanoi by car.

Prior to leaving Washington, Trump posted on Twitter: "With complete Denuclearization, North Korea will rapidly become an Economic Powerhouse. Without it, just more of the same. Chairman Kim will make a wise decision!"

Speaking to a gathering of governors in the White House earlier on February 25, Trump predicted "a very tremendous summit."

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Fox television on February 24 that he hoped for "a substantive step forward" at the summit.

"It may not happen, but I hope that it will," Pompeo said.

Vietnamese authorities have promised tight security for the event and no information has been released concerning the venue for the summit.

Based on reporting by Reuters, AP, and dpa

A Russian military court has convicted a former Federal Security Service (FSB) officer and an expert at the cybersecurity company Kaspersky Lab of treason and handed them long prison terms in a case that is reportedly linked to the United States.

After a trial held behind closed doors, the Moscow regional military court on February 26 convicted former FSB officer Sergei Mikhailov and Ruslan Stoyanov, chief of the computer incidents investigation team at Kaspersky Lab, of passing secret information to foreign intelligence agencies.

Mikhailov, who worked in the FSB’s information-security division, was sentenced to 22 years in prison and Stoyanov to 14 years, Russian news agencies reported. Mikhailov was also stripped of his colonel's rank and his decorations.

"We will appeal the sentence," Stoyanov's lawyer, Inga Lebedeva, told the TASS news agency. "The guys think that they have stepped on some toes during their counterhacking activity."

Russian media reports have said that investigators accused the two of selling confidential documents to the FBI.

Reports have said the documents were files from a Russian investigation into the former head of payment services company Chronopay, Pavel Vrublevsky, who is accused in the United States for alleged cybercrimes.

Defense lawyer Lebedeva was unable to give details about the closed trial but told AP that the verdict was based on Vrublevsky's testimony.

Mikhailov was arrested in December 2016 and Stoyanov was detained in January 2017.

Two other suspects were charged during the inquiry, Bloomberg reported on February 22, quoting people familiar with the case.

They were identified by the sources, who asked not be identified because they were not authorized to discuss the case, as businessman Georgy Fomchenkov and Dmitry Dokuchayev, a member of Mikhailov’s staff, who is also accused in the United States of involvement in the hacking of 500 million Yahoo e-mail accounts.

The two have pleaded guilty to U.S. ties and will be sentenced later, Bloomberg reported.

All four men were arrested in December 2016, shortly after Donald Trump won the U.S. presidency, and charged with treason along with a researcher for the private computer company Kaspersky Lab.

The FSB, along with Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU, have both been blamed for hacking campaigns that targeted U.S. political operatives, including the Democratic National Committee.

The Kremlin dismissed suggestions of links between the case and alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

With reporting by Reuters, TASS, Interfax, Meduza, and Bloomberg

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has defended his daughter's internship with a lawmaker at the European Parliament (EP) in Brussels after an RFE/RL report revealing that she works there prompted concerns among lawmakers.

"We are talking about an ordinary student and an ordinary internship," Peskov, who has been President Vladimir Putin's main spokesman for many years, told journalists on February 26.

Yelizaveta Peskova, 21, serves as a trainee with Aymeric Chauprade, a French member of the European Parliament (MEP) who has publicly supported Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, RFE/RL reported a day earlier.

Peskova’s name appears on Chauprade’s official European Parliament webpage and Chauprade confirmed to RFE/RL that she is part of his team.

"This is about my daughter. It is not about my duties and my job," Peskov said when asked about the issue in a daily briefing with reporters.

Several European Parliament members contacted by RFE/RL earlier said they were unaware that a relative of a high-level Russian official was working among them.

Latvian MEP Sandra Kalniete called it a "breach of general security rules of the European Parliament.”

SEE ALSO:

Exclusive: Daughter Of Putin's Spokesman Working In European Parliament

Lithuanian MEP Petras Austrevicius said it cast “very big shame on the face of the European Parliament.”

State-run Russian news agency TASS cited Chauprade as saying that Peskova and other interns do not have access to confidential documents.

Chauprade said Peskova receives what he said was the standard intern’s pay of 1,000 euros ($1,135) per month, TASS reported.

He rejected the criticism of his colleagues at the European Parliament as “conspiratorial Russophobia.”

With reporting by Current Time, Interfax, and TASS

KYIV -- Ukrainian presidential candidate Yulia Tymoshenko has called for the impeachment of President Petro Poroshenko, accusing him of treason after a media outlet aired a program alleging that people close to the incumbent enriched themselves by smuggling spare parts for military equipment from Russia.

With the March 31 election less than five weeks away and polls indicating that she and Poroshenko are among the three front-runners, former prime minister Tymoshenko told a parliament session on February 26 that her Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) party and others have launched an impeachment process.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a comedian who some polls have put in the lead in the presidential race, sharply criticized Poroshenko in a social media post.

The report on media outlet Bihus.Info's program Nashi Hroshi (Our Money) threw an explosive new element into a campaign in which Poroshenko -- the pro-Western tycoon who came to power after Moscow-friendly President Viktor Yanukovych was pushed out by protests known as the Maidan -- is seeking to overcome a steep drop in popularity to win a new term amid a continuing war against Russia-backed separatists and persistent economic challenges.

The report posted on YouTube on February 25 alleged that Ihor Hladkovskyy, the son of close Poroshenko ally Oleh Hladkovskyy, who is deputy secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, organized a ring to smuggle spare military-equipment parts from Russia in 2015, a year after Moscow seized Ukraine's Crimea region and threw its support behind militant separatists in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

"We believe that the facts uncovered by investigative journalists fall under Article 111 of the Criminal Code, and are defined as treason deliberately committed by a citizen of Ukraine at the expense of the sovereignty, territorial integrity, inviolability, defense, and economic security of Ukraine," Tymoshenko said in parliament. "This is collaboration with the enemy, the destruction of the Ukrainian army, and assistance to the occupying country in capturing our homeland, which is a criminal matter."

Zelenskyy, in a video posted on Facebook on February 26, said that he had "no words" to comment on the report and added that "people who came to power on blood are 'earning' money on blood." He joked bitterly that he now knows what Poroshenko's campaign slogan "Army, Language, Faith!" means: "To steal from the army, to selectively split people by language, so that there will be no faith in you."

The report by Bihus.info, which conducts journalistic investigations, alleged that state defense facilities purchased the smuggled spare parts from private companies linked to Hladkovskyy and his friends at highly inflated prices. It claimed that Ukroboronprom, the state concern that supervises defense industry production facilities, knew the origin of the smuggled parts origin but agreed to buy them.

The report also alleged that two men, Andriy Rohoza and former Ukroboronprom employee Vitaliy Zhukov, helped Hladkovskyy smuggle the spare parts from Russia and that the three illegally earned at least 250 million hryvnyas ($9.2 million) through three major private firms, one of which belonged to Poroshenko at the time.

The report came as Poroshenko, who has been dogged by accusations that he has failed to tackle corruption or rein in influential magnates, was seeing his poll numbers improve after indications in 2018 that his reelection chances were very slim.

There was no immediate comment from Ihor Hladkovskyy or from Poroshenko, but Poroshenko's spokesman, Svyatoslav Tseholko, said on February 26 that Oleh Hladkovskyy had been suspended from his post at the National Security and Defense Council.

Ukroboronprom called the Bihus.info report "manipulative," claimed it did not present all the facts, and suggested that the proper authorities should assess whether the report violated any laws.

"The journalists did not indicate the source of its information [and] presented the information in a manipulative fashion," Ukroboronprom said in a statement on its website. "We emphasize that the journalists manipulatively used non-public information from criminal investigations and should contact the original sources in order to verify it."

Ukroboronprom said the "use of information relating to issues of national security should be given a proper legal assessment by the competent authorities." The state company said journalists should "act responsibly" and called on politicians to refrain from speculation and from the further use of what it called "information sabotage."

Oleh Hladkovskyy and another Poroshenko associate, Ihor Kononenko, have been involved in running Poroshenko's businesses following the confectionery tycoon's election in June 2014.

Bihus.Info announced that two more parts of its investigation will be aired soon.

Allegations about ties or transactions involving Russia are particularly sensitive because of Moscow's seizure of Crimea and its role in the war that has killed some 13,000 people in eastern Ukraine, where the Russia-backed separatist hold parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

The Ukrainian Constitution says the president "can be impeached if he or she commits high treason or other crimes."

Among other things, the process requires an investigation by a special prosecutor and multiple votes in parliament, including a three-fourths vote following approval by the Constitutional Court.

Written by Merhat Sharipzhan with reporting by Christopher Miller in Kyiv and Bihus.info

Afghan officials say that an air strike has mistakenly killed nine members of a government-backed militia.

Provincial officials said that at least three members of the forces were also wounded in the strike, which took place in the eastern province of Ghazni late on February 26.

The militiamen had asked for air support in Jaghori district, but their own outpost was mistakenly hit by the strike, the officials said.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the air strike, which came as a number of ground and aerial operations have been ongoing in several districts of Ghazni Province over the past days.

Taliban militants, who have an active presence in many districts of the province, have increased attacks on Afghan security forces in the past few months.

The Western-backed government in Kabul has struggled to fend off a resurgent Taliban and other militant groups since the withdrawal of most NATO forces in 2014.

Based on reporting by AP, dpa, and TOLOnews

KYIV -- Some 13,000 people have been killed, a quarter of them civilians, and as many as 30,000 wounded in the war in eastern Ukraine since it broke out in April 2014, the United Nations says.

The estimated toll includes more than 3,300 civilian deaths, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said in a document dated February 25 and provided to RFE/RL the same day.

It comes as the simmering conflict between Russia-backed separatists and government forces approaches its sixth year, with little progress toward the implementation of a Western-brokered cease-fire and political-settlement deal known as the Minsk Accords.

"OHCHR estimates the total number of conflict-related casualties in Ukraine...at 40,000-43,000" from April 14, 2014 to January 31, 2019, the statement said, including "12,800-13,000 killed."

The estimated death toll includes 3,321 civilians, among them the 298 passengers and crew members who died when Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down on July 17, 2014 en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.

A Dutch-led international investigation concluded that the jet was shot down by a Buk missile from a Russian system that had been brought from Russia into separatist-held territory in Ukraine and later returned to Russia.

The estimated death toll also includes 4,000 members of Ukrainian forces and 5,500 "armed groups," the OHCHR document said.

OHCHR estimates the total number of people wounded at 27,500 to 30,000, including 7,000 to 9,000 civilians.

The proportion of civilians in the casualty figures has declined sharply, with the estimated share of civilians in total conflict-related deaths at 33-34 percent in 2014 and 10-11 percent in 2018, the OHCHR said.

In the past, OHCHR released updated casualty figures from the conflict several times a year. But the new document said that the "previous conservative estimate of total conflict-related casualties was as of 15 November 2017."

That report said that the OHCHR had recorded 35,081 conflict-related casualties -- 10,303 people killed and 24,778 wounded -- and said the real toll could be higher.

Russia has provided military, economic, and political support to separatist militants who control parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the corner of southeastern Ukraine known as the Donbas.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) ruled in November 2016 that the war in eastern Ukraine is "an international armed conflict between Ukraine and the Russian Federation."

Critics say Russia encouraged separatism and fomented unrest across much of Ukraine after Moscow-friendly President Viktor Yanukovych fled the country in February 2014 in the face of mass protests known as the Maidan.

The protests erupted in the fall of 2013, when Yanukovych abruptly abandoned plans to sign a pact tightening Ukraine's ties with the European Union and called for closer economic interaction with Russia instead.

With reporting by Christopher Miller in Kyiv

An Israeli court has sentenced a former cabinet minister to 11 years in prison for spying for the country's arch-foe Iran.

Prosecutor Geula Cohen told journalists outside the Jerusalem court on February 26 that the judge had issued the sentence against Gonen Segev after accepting a plea bargain on charges of espionage and transferring information to Iran.

The court hearings had been held in secret due to the nature of the case.

Segev, who served as energy minister from 1995 to 1996 under Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, was convicted in 2005 of attempting to smuggle 32,000 chocolate-covered ecstasy pills from the Netherlands to Israel.

The ex-minister was released from prison in 2007, and has lived in Nigeria for nearly 10 years where he practiced medicine after his license was revoked in Israel, according to The Jerusalem Post.

He was extradited from Equatorial Guinea to Israel in May 2018.

The Shin Bet security service has said that Segev served as an agent of the Iranian intelligence services, and that he visited Iran twice for meetings with his handlers.

It said that Segev tried to put Israeli citizens with ties to Israel's security and foreign relations sectors in touch with Iranian agents posing as "innocent business officials."

He also supplied Iran with "information related to the energy sector, security sites in Israel, and officials in political and security institutions," according to Shin Bet.

Based on reporting by AFP and The Jerusalem Post

Iranian President Hassan Rohani has not specified whether he will accept the resignation of Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, but has praised him for his "resistance" and "capabilities."

In a televised speech on February 26, Rohani made no mention of Zarif’s announcement that he was resigning, saying the minister was on the "front line of the battle" against the United States, Tehran’s archenemy.

"If our Foreign Ministry is doing something, it is because it is from the people and it represents the people," Rohani said. "The government, in general, is elected by the people."

The comments come after Zarif announced his resignation in a message posted on Instagram late on February 25, amid mounting pressure from hard-liners who have criticized his role in negotiating a landmark 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

The United States pulled out of the deal in May 2018 and reimposed crippling sanctions on Iran, fueling a deepening economic crisis and political infighting in the country.

Iran's parliament will discuss Zarif’s resignation during a meeting on February 26, the assembly's news website ICANA reported.

"With attention to the internal and international situation, sanctions and the pressure from America, I emphasize that more than any other time we need internal unity and solidarity," said Ali Najafi Khoshroodi, the spokesman for the parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, which will hold the meeting.

A report by Fars news agency quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying on February 26 that Zarif's resignation "has not been accepted."

"All interpretations and analysis around the reasons behind the resignation of Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, beyond what he posted on his Instagram account, are not accurate and, as the chief of staff of the president of Iran said today, the resignation has not been accepted," spokesman Bahram Qasemi was quoted as saying by Fars.

Meanwhile, Rohani’s chief of staff said on Instagram that the president stands behind Zarif.

"The words of the president today in praising his foreign minister are a clear sign of the satisfaction of the representative of the people of Iran about the wise and effective positions and work of Dr. Zarif and a tough response to some biased and incorrect analyses," Mahmud Vaezi wrote in the post.

"In the view of Dr. Rohani, the Islamic Republic of Iran has only one foreign policy and one foreign minister," Vaezi added.

'Deadly Poison'

In an interview published in the Jomhuri Eslami newspaper on February 26, Zarif was quoted as saying that infighting between parties and factions in Iran was a "deadly poison" undermining foreign policy, suggesting he may have quit over pressure from hard-line conservatives.

However, the semiofficial Fars news agency reported that the interview had taken place last week, before Zarif announced his resignation.

Meanwhile, a majority of Iranian lawmakers signed a letter to Rohani on February 26, asking for Zarif to continue in his job, according to IRNA.

It quoted Khoshroodi as saying that 150 out of 290 lawmakers in the chamber had so far signed the letter.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Washington had taken note of Zarif's resignation, saying: "We’ll see if it sticks."

Zarif and Rohani "are just front men for a corrupt religious mafia,” he also wrote on Twitter.

The prime minister of Israel, Iran's arch-foe in the Middle East, welcomed Zarif's announcement.

"Zarif is gone. Good riddance," Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted.

Iran's stock market dropped around 2,000 points on the news that Zarif had resigned, IRNA reported.

'Shortcomings And Flaws'

In his message on Instagram, Zarif thanked the Iranian people and authorities but gave no reason for the resignation.

"I apologize for not being able to continue in the post and for all the shortcomings and flaws in the period," he wrote.

Zarif has served as the Iran's top diplomat since August 2013, replacing Ali Akbar Salehi, the current head of Atomic Organization of Iran.

He headed the Iranian negotiation team that led to the 2015 deal between Tehran and six world powers, which saw Iran limit its nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief.

Zarif's resignation could further undermine the deal after U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew Washington from the accord, saying it did not address Iran's missile program and "destabilizing" activities in the Middle East.

The other signatories to the agreement have been working to keep it alive and have resisted U.S. pressure to abandon the deal.

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, AP, dpa, IRNA, ISNA, and the BBC

A prominent journalist who has been charged by Kyrgyz authorities with inciting ethnic hatred says he has received political asylum in France.

Ulugbek Babakulov, a correspondent for the Russia-based Fergana news site, said on February 25 that he received an official letter from French authorities confirming his political refugee status on that day.

Babakulov said his refugee status is valid for 10 years, during which he is not allowed to visit Kyrgyzstan or Kyrgyz diplomatic missions around the world.

Babakulov left Kyrgyzstan in June 2017 to get away from what he called the "insanity" launched against him.

The ethnic-hatred charge stems from an article published in May 2017 about Kyrgyz social-network users' reactions to a conflict involving an ethnic Uzbek man and four Kyrgyz men.

Lawmakers called Babakulov's article a "provocation," pointing to its publication shortly before the anniversary of unrest between ethnic Kygryz and Uzbeks that killed more than 450 people, the majority of them ethnic Uzbeks, in southern Kyrgyzstan in June 2010.

Babakulov has insisted that he merely raised the issue and had no intention of inciting hatred.

With reporting by Fergana

Maria Butina was set to make her first appearance in U.S. federal court since pleading guilty last year to charges of being an unregistered foreign agent.

The February 26 hearing in the U.S. District Court for Washington, D.C., comes ahead of a final decision on whether the Russian native will serve time in a U.S. prison or be deported to Russia.

Defense lawyer Robert Driscoll told the Russian state news agency TASS that Butina's Russian passport had been handed over to U.S. immigration authorities, a possible signal she may end up being forced to leave the United States rather than serving more time in custody.

Driscoll said he hopes a final sentence will be announced no later than April.

"Our hope would be that she'll receive a sentence that will be equivalent to the time already served and that she will be released and deported soon after that," he was quoted as saying.

In December, Butina pleaded guilty to conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government. In court documents, prosecutors had charged that Butina had sought to infiltrate conservative U.S. political organizations, including the influential National Rifle Association.

As part of their evidence, prosecutors pointed to one of her key backers, Aleksandr Torshin, a former lawmaker and top official at Russia's Central Bank, who was hit with financial sanctions by the U.S. Treasury Department in April -- three months before Butina's arrest.

Earlier this month, an American conservative political activist who was identified as Butina's boyfriend was indicted by a federal grand jury in the state of South Dakota on financial fraud charges.

The Kremlin has called the charges against Butina "groundless," and Russian President Vladimir Putin has insisted that Butina pleaded guilty "under pressure."

Meetings With Top Officials

The upcoming sentencing comes as U.S. senators have begun inquiring into two meetings that Butina and Torshin held in 2015 with two top U.S. financial officials: Stanley Fischer, then Federal Reserve vice chairman, and Nathan Sheets, then Treasury undersecretary for international affairs.

On February 15, the Senate Finance Committee sent a letter to a Washington think tank that organized the meeting, the Center for the National Interest.

The center, which also has a magazine that had published articles authored by Butina, is a foreign policy think tank that is supportive of efforts to improve U.S.-Russia relations. Its chief executive is a Russian-born man, Dimitri Simes.

"It is concerning that Ms. Butina and Mr. Torshin were able to gain access to high-level administration officials responsible for U.S. economic and monetary policy to reportedly discuss U.S. Russian economic relations," the lawmakers wrote.

Letters were also sent to the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve.

Butina's father, who lives in the Siberian city of Barnual, told TASS that his daughter's health was normal.

"Her health is normal, and she feels confident [before the court session] and hopes that it all will end soon," he was quoted as saying.

WASHINGTON-- Lawyers for Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, have asked a federal judge for leniency, ahead of Manafort's sentencing on witness-tampering and unregistered-lobbying charges.

Defense lawyers made the arguments in a February 25 court filing, just two days after Special Counsel Robert Mueller filed his own sentencing memo, which called Manafort a "hardened criminal."

In the filing, Manafort's lawyers portrayed him as merely a wealthy consultant who committed "garden variety" crimes. Those crimes included lobbying for Ukrainian businessmen and political parties and failing to register under U.S. foreign agent laws.

In September, days before his trial was set to begin in a Washington, D.C. federal court, Manafort pleaded guilty.

He faces up to five years in prison on each felony count.

'Bold Criminal Actions'

By contrast with the defense filing, Mueller's prosecutors argued that Manafort "repeatedly and brazenly violated the law" for more than a decade.

"His criminal actions were bold, some of which were committed while under a spotlight due to his work as the campaign chairman and, later, while he was out on bail from this court," prosecutors said in their filing.

Days before the Washington trial was to begin, a federal jury in Virginia convicted Manafort on eight counts of tax and financial fraud, with the possibility that he could spend more than 19 years in prison on those charges alone.

Manafort is 69, meaning a lengthy sentence could mean he would live out his life in prison.

Manafort served briefly as Trump's campaign chairman during the 2016 election campaign. He was fired in August 2016 amid revelations about the extent of his political work for pro-Russian Ukrainian politicians, including former President Viktor Yanukovych.

Shadowy Russian-Ukrainian

One of the main focuses of Mueller's investigation of Manafort has been his relationship with a shadowy Russian-Ukrainian named Konstantin Kilimnik. Prosecutors have argued that Kilimnik, who has also been charged, has ties to Russian intelligence.

In earlier court filings, Mueller prosecutors alleged that during the 2016 campaign, Manafort shared political polling data with Kilimnik, and asked that they be relayed to political figures. The New York Times and other media have reported those figures included two powerful Ukrainian businessmen, who helped finance Yanukovych's political party.

The extent of the polling data has not been clear. On February 25, however, a well-known national security blogger named Marcy Wheeler pointed out specific documents in the court docket that suggested Manafort had relayed as much as 75 pages of polling data.

Kilimnik is believed to be in Russia, and is unlikely to ever face a trial in the United States.

A judge will announce the sentence against Manafort on March 13.

India has launched what it called a “preemptive” air strike against Pakistan-based militants following a suicide bombing in India-administered Kashmir earlier this month.

Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said the Indian Air Force early on February 26 targeted a training camp of a Kashmiri militant group in the Balakot area in Pakistan's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.

The town of Balakot is located on the edge of the Pakistani-controlled part of Kashmir -- about 80 kilometers from the Line of Control, which serves as a de facto border in the disputed Himalayan territory.

Islamabad said the strike -- the first launched across the line of control since a war between the two nuclear-armed neighbors in 1971 -- hit an empty area, but vowed to respond to what they called India’s “aggression.”

Escalated Tensions

Tensions between Islamabad and New Delhi has escalated since a suicide attack claimed by the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) militant group killed at least 41 soldiers on the Indian side of Kashmir.

Gokhale told a news conference in New Delhi that the Indian strike had killed “a very large number of [JeM] terrorists, trainers, senior commanders and groups of jihadis who were being trained for fidayeen (suicide) action."

“In the face of imminent danger, a preemptive strike became absolutely necessary," he also said.

The Indian news agency ANI, citing unnamed military sources, reported that 12 Mirage 2000 fighter jets had attacked a "terrorist camp.

"At a special meeting chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan, the Pakistani National Security Committee called the strike an "uncalled for aggression to which Pakistan shall respond at the time and place of its choosing."

'Reckless And Fictitious'

It also rejected India's claim that many militants were killed in the strike, branding it "self-serving, reckless, and fictitious," a statement said.

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi warned New Delhi not to challenge Pakistan, saying that "better sense should prevail in India,” according to Radio Pakistan.

Pakistan's military earlier accused India's air force of violating its airspace, and said it scrambled its own fighter jets in response.

Military spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor tweeted that Indian jets had crossed the Line of Control, and traveled as far as 6.4 kilometers into Pakistan-administered territory.

"Pakistan Air Force immediately scrambled. Indian aircrafts gone back," Ghafoor wrote in a separate tweet.

The Indian aircraft "released [a] payload in haste... near Balakot," he said, adding that there were "no casualties or damage."

Pakistani villagers in the area said they heard four loud explosions in the early hours of February 26 but reported only one person wounded by bomb shards, the Reuters news agency reported.

"There are no casualties, there are no damages on the ground because of the dropping of the bombs," Balakot police chief Saghir Hussain Shah told The Associated Press.

The European Union and China, a Pakistani ally, urged India and Pakistan to exercise "restraint" after the air strike.

"We remain in contact with both countries and what we believe is essential is that all exercise maximum restraint and avoid further escalation of tensions," said Maja Kocijancic, a spokeswoman for EU’s foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told reporters that combating terrorism was "a global issue and a global challenge" that requires "cooperation between countries."

India says its neighbor had a "direct hand" in a February 14 suicide attack on Indian security forces, and accuses it of providing sanctuary to the militants. Islamabad denies involvement.

Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan have fought two of their three full-fledged wars over Kashmir since their partition during independence from Britain in 1947.

With reporting by AFP, Reuters, AP, and the BBC

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad visited Iran for talks with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rohani -- the first time the Syrian leader has traveled anywhere other than Russia since the civil war erupted in his country nearly eight years ago.

Assad voiced his gratitude to Iran for its support throughout the war, official Syrian and Iranian news agencies said on February 25.

Several rounds of UN-sponsored negotiations in recent years have failed to end the conflict, which began in March 2011 with protests against the Assad family's decades-long rule and has killed more than 400,000 people, displaced millions, and devastated historic sites across the country.

Russia, Turkey, and Iran are all deeply involved in the seven-year Syrian conflict and sponsor separate peace talks in Kazakhstan's capital, Astana.

Tehran has given the Syrian government billions of dollars in aid since the conflict began and sent Iran-backed fighters to battle alongside his forces.

Syrian state TV says Assad "thanked the Islamic Republic's leadership and people for what they have given to Syria during the war." Assad's office said "both sides expressed their satisfaction with the strategic levels reached between the two countries in all fields."

Syrian and Iranian media released photos showing Assad, in a dark suit, in an embrace with Khamenei and shaking hands with Rohani, both of them smiling.

Based on reporting by AP and AFP

Iran’s foreign minister has announced his resignation, an abrupt departure that could further undermine the landmark 2015 nuclear deal with Western powers.

In a message posted to his Instagram account, Mohammad Javad Zarif said he wanted to apologize for not being able to continue, but gave no further explanation for his resignation. Early on February 26, there was no indication that President Hassan Rohani had formally accepted Zarif's resignation.

"Thank you very much to the dear and honorable people of Iran over the past 67 months," Zarif wrote in the Instagram post. "I sincerely apologize for the incapacity to continue serving and all the shortcomings during the service. I thank the Iranian nation and officials."

A deputy Foreign Ministry spokesman confirmed the authenticity of Zarif's Instagram announcement, state-run IRNA news agency reported. Iran's semiofficial Tasnim news agency also said "some sources have confirmed Zarif's resignation," but it was not clear whether President Hassan Rohani would accept it.

Zarif, who has served as Iran's top diplomat since August 2013, headed the Iranian negotiation team that led to the 2015 agreement known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, a deal reached with the United States, Germany, Russia, China, Britain, and, France.

The deal itself has been under severe strain, despite a United Nations watchdog’s conclusions that Tehran remains in compliance.

U.S. President Donald Trump last year announced Washington was pulling out of the deal, and later moved to reimpose sanctions on Tehran. In his decision, Trump called Iran "the world's leading state sponsor of terror" and said his administration had acted decisively to confront it.

Zarif came under attack from hard-line conservatives in Iran after Trump pulled out of the agreement.

The other signatories to the nuclear deal have been working to keep it alive and have resisted U.S. pressure to abandon the accord.

Top Iranian officials, including Rohani, have said that the Islamic Republic is facing its toughest economic situation in 40 years, at least partially due to the resumption of U.S. sanctions.

Zarif replaced Ali Akbar Salehi, the current head of the Atomic Organization of Iran.

If Rohani does accept Zarif's resignation, it's not immediately clear who would assume the post.

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, AP, dpa, and irna.ir

U.S. President Donald Trump left Washington on February 25 for Vietnam where he will hold his second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The two leaders will meet in Hanoi on February 27-28 to discuss North Korea's nuclear-weapons and missile programs. There has been speculation that the two leaders would discuss agreeing to a formal end to the Korean War, which was frozen by an armistice agreement in 1953.

Prior to leaving Washington, Trump posted on Twitter: "With complete Denuclearization, North Korea will rapidly become an Economic Powerhouse. Without it, just more of the same. Chairman Kim will make a wise decision!"

Speaking to a gathering of governors in the White House earlier on February 25, Trump predicted "a very tremendous summit." Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Fox television on February 24 that he hoped for "a substantive step forward" at the summit.

"It may not happen, but I hope that it will," Pompeo said.

Kim was traveling to Vietnam on an armored train and was expected to reach Hanoi on February 26.

Vietnamese authorities have promised tight security for the event and no information has been released concerning the venue for the summit.

Based on reporting by Reuters, AP, and dpa

The former chief of staff for Ukraine’s armed forces has been detained on charges of high treason.

Prosecutor-General Yury Lutsenko wrote on Facebook that General Volodymyr Zamana was taken into custody on February 25.

According to Lutsenko, Zamana is suspected of illegally dissolving 70 military garrisons and units, including air-defense missile brigades and battalions, and 19 air force units, and reducing a tactical aviation brigade to a squadron from 2012-2014.

Zamana's "illegal" actions resulted in the liquidation of military registration and army-draft offices, which by 2014 weakened the Ukrainian Army and helped Russia annex Crimea and helped incite separatism in Ukraine's east, Lutsenko wrote.

"Additionally, Zamana personally issued a directive subordinating all units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces' Crimean tactical group to the Navy commander, which actually paralyzed Ukrainian military personnel’s resistance to the Russian aggression," Lutsenko wrote.

Ukrainian Chief Military Prosecutor Anatoliy Matios said earlier in the day that Zamana had been formally notified of being considered a suspect in a treason case.

With reporting by UNIAN and Gordon

A Belarusian escort and self-described sex trainer who claimed to have evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election says the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) "strongly advised" her not to return to her country after months in jail in Thailand.

In a telephone interview with RFE/RL's Belarus Service from Moscow on February 22, Anastasia Vashukevich, who is also known as Nastya Rybka, also said that she might get involved in politics in Russia or Belarus in the future.

Vashukevich and her mentor Aleksei Kirillov, aka Alex Lesley, were detained at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport in January upon arrival from Thailand, where they were detained in the beach resort of Pattaya and spent about nine months in jail on charges of soliciting to provide sexual services.

Vashukevich, 28, told RFE/RL that her detainment in Russia was illegal as she was officially deported from Thailand to Belarus, not Russia.

"According to the regulations, my passport was supposed to be returned to me in Minsk. Nobody had a right to stop me [in Moscow airport]," Vashukevich said, adding that she was illegally forced to enter Russia instead of getting on her connecting flight to Minsk.

Video footage showed Vashukevich being detained roughly at the airport, and she told RFE/RL that she was questioned twice while in Moscow but added that "since nobody is bothering me here now, I will stay here for the time being."

Russian authorities said that the she and Kirillov were detained on January 19 upon arrival from Thailand on suspicion of luring people into prostitution, a crime that is punishable by up to three years in prison.

But the two were released three days later amid reports that Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka ordered Belarusian diplomats to secure Vashukevich's release.

It was unclear whether that was a factor, and Vashukevich told RFE/RL that she had not expected Lukashenka to get involved.

"I had expected some sort of support in Belarus as I have many friends there. But I certainly did not expect that the president would [deal with the situation] personally," Vashukevich said, speaking Russian in the interview.

Shortly after her release, Vashukevich praised "the president of my favorite country," seemingly referring to Belarus.

Vashukevich became the focus of a geopolitical scandal when Kremlin foe Aleksei Navalny published an expose in February 2018 based largely on photos and video she had posted on social media. The photos and videos appeared to show her on a yacht with Kremlin-connected tycoon Oleg Derispaska and Sergei Prikhodko, a Russian deputy prime minister at the time and a longtime former foreign-policy aide to Putin.

In custody in Thailand later last year, Vashukevich earlier claimed to have recordings of Deripaska talking about interference in the 2016 U.S. election in which President Donald Trump was elected. But she has never released them and suggested in comments after her detention in Russia that she would not do so.

Deripaska is close to Putin and had a working relationship with Paul Manafort, Trump's former campaign chairman who was investigated by special counsel Robert Mueller and convicted last year of tax and bank fraud.

The report published by Russian opposition politician Navalny's anticorruption outfit, drawing on photographs and video that Vashukevich published on Instagram in 2016, appeared to show Prikhodko being offered lavish treatment on Deripaska's yacht. The two also appear to discuss U.S. politics.

Vashukevich, who was pictured on the yacht, has said that she had an affair with Deripaska. Representatives of the tycoon have accused her of fabrication and have said that she was never his mistress.

Vashukevich and Kirillov made international headlines again when they asked for asylum in the United States while detained in Thailand.

Vashukevich told RFE/RL she is currently working on her third book and that the subject is the conditions in Thai jails, where she said cells are overcrowded and the food "cannot be consumed."

Asked whether she has ties with Belarusian tycoons, Vashukevich said that she has many friends among such people and that she might "someday" get involved in politics in Russia or in Belarus.

Media reports in Russia say that Igor Malashenko, a well-known television and print media executive, journalist, and political analyst, was found dead in Spain on February 25.

Malashenko was a co-founder of NTV television company in the 1990s. He was also a former chief of the Russian state television and radio giant Ostankino.

In 1996, Malashenko was the chief consultant for President Boris Yeltsin's reelection campaign. Yeltsin overcame poor opinion ratings and health problems to win a second term, holding off a Communist challenger.

Malashenko founded the conglomerate Media-Most in 1997.

He also used to lead RTVI television channel and headed the presidential campaign of journalist and TV host Ksenia Sobchak, who received about 1.7 percent of the vote in a March 2018 election that incumbent President Vladimir Putin won by a landslide.

Based on reporting by Vedomosti and Kommersant

BRUSSELS -- The daughter of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman works as an intern in the European Parliament in Brussels, and has unhindered access to various EU documents, RFE/RL has learned.

Yelizaveta Peskova, the 21-year-old daughter of Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, serves as a trainee with Aymeric Chauprade, a French member of the European Parliament (MEP) who has publicly supported Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.

Peskova’s name appears on Chauprade’s official European Parliament (EP) webpage and Chauprade confirmed to RFE/RL that she is part of his team.

“Ms. Peskova is certainly the daughter of an important personality in the Russian Federation, but as a student, she does not have fewer rights than other young people to do an internship as part of her studies,” Chauprade said in an e-mailed comment.

He added that Peskova is not currently working in Russia, either for a state or private entity.

“Accordingly, there can be no conflict of interest in the exercise of my mandate as a Member of Parliament,” Chauprade wrote.

Chauprade is a member of both the EP’s foreign affairs committee and the subcommittee on security and defense, and he is part of the delegation of the EU-Russia parliamentary committee.

He was one of the international observers to the Moscow-staged referendum in Crimea following the Russian military takeover of the Ukrainian peninsula in March 2014.

At the time, Chauprade called the referendum “justified,” a position at odds with the European Union’s. A UN General Assembly resolution supported by 100 countries pronounced the referendum invalid and confirmed the assembly's commitment to the territorial integrity of Ukraine.

SEE ALSO:

Putin Spokesman's Expat Daughter Makes Splash At Crimean Shipyard

Several MEPs contacted by RFE/RL said they were unaware that a relative of a high-level Russian official was working among them in the EP.

Sandra Kalniete, a Latvian MEP from the largest parliamentary group, the center-right European People’s Party, considers her work there “negligence.”

“This is breach of general security rules of the European Parliament,” Kalniete said.

Petras Austrevicius, a Lithuanian MEP from the Liberal Group in the EP, called Peskova’s position there a “very big shame on the face of the European Parliament.”

“I couldn’t believe that Kremlin keeps its hand in the pockets and heart of the EU institutions,” Austrevicius told RFE/RL.

Reached by RFE/RL, a spokeswoman for Peskova said she could not confirm her employment at the EP.

As a trainee, Peskova has unhindered access to the European Parliament buildings in both Brussels and Strasbourg and can attend all committees and other meetings in the chamber.

Chauprade told French news agency AFP that Peskova cannot attend closed-door debates nor participate in the work of the EU-Russia parliamentary committee.

Since controls sometimes are very relaxed with few real checks, there is also the possibility to be present at gatherings of other political groups. She also has access to both the European Parliament intranet and the intranet of her MEP’s party.

But Chauprade emphasised that Peskova had no access to confidential documents.​

EP interns are paid by the budget of the MEP, which is funded by European taxpayers. It is unclear how much money Peskova is getting, if any.

The MEP determines how much a trainee is paid, since the sum comes from the politician’s monthly allocation for staff -- around 25,000 euros ($28,389) per month. The maximum payment for a trainee is around 1,600 euros, though it is also possible for MEPs to employ unpaid trainees.

Peskova is one of numerous children of Russia’s political elite who reside or study in Western Europe and draw accusations of hypocrisy from Kremlin critics.

Her father, who has served as Putin’s spokesman for nearly two decades, has been the subject of several exposes by Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny highlighting his wealth and expensive taste.

Peskova is a frequent user of social media with nearly 80,000 followers on Instagram, where she typically flaunts her glamorous lifestyle and claims to be based in Moscow, Paris, and Brussels.

While her social-media footprint does not appear to feature any photographs from the European Parliament, there are several photos of her visiting different Brussels landmarks.

An MEP is responsible for registering his or her trainee. To get a temporary accreditation pass, a one-page form must be submitted to the parliament’s accreditation office. The form contains basic information -- such as name, date of birth, and identification number -- and is typically approved within hours, people familiar with the system told RFE/RL.

The procedure requires an MEP and the trainee to sign a contract, as well as an application for the defrayal of expenses, a declaration stating that the trainee has health and accident insurance, and a declaration of honor in which the lawmaker states that the trainee has a valid permit to enter and stay in the EU for the duration of the traineeship.

It typically takes three weeks for those documents to be processed, after which the trainee gets a permanent accreditation.

Chauprade told RFE/RL that all necessary procedures were respected in Peskova’s traineeship.

“I repeat, this contract is validated by the Parliament and complies in all respects with the obligations in the matter,” he wrote.

Up until late 2015, Chauprade was a member of right-wing French politician Marine Le Pen’s National Front and was the party’s top candidate in the Paris region for the 2014 European elections.

Accusing the people around Le Pen of antisemitism, he quit the party to become an independent MEP before joining and subsequently becoming the vice-chair of the other right-wing populist group in the chamber, the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD).

That group also includes Italy’s Five Star Movement and the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP).

Knut Fleckenstein, a German MEP from the the center-left Socialist and Democrats group, said there should have at least been a public announcement that a person with political connections like Peskova’s had secured a position at the European Parliament.

“I would maybe think twice [about] what I would tell her,” Fleckenstein said.

One of the most popular Soviet-era film directors, Georgy Daneliya, has been hospitalized with pneumonia and put into a medically induced coma in Moscow.

The 88-year-old director's wife, Galina Yurkova-Daneliya, said that her husband was rushed to hospital on February 23.

Georgian-born Daneliya made a range of movies that became very popular in the Soviet Union.

His most famous films include Walking The Streets of Moscow, Afonya, Mimino, The Autumn Marathon, and Gentlemen Of Fortune.

In 1979, The Autumn Marathon received the Golden Shell, the highest prize of the San Sebastian International Film Festival in Spain, and the Pasinetti Award for best film at the Venice International Film Festival in Italy. Yevgeny Leonov's role in the movie won him the Pasinetti Award for best actor.

Daneliya directed the tragicomic cult film Kin-dza-dza! in 1986

Based on reporting by TASS and Interfax

U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad met with one of the Afghan Taliban's co-founders in Qatar, in what was said to be the highest-level engagement between the two sides as part of Afghanistan's peace process.

"Just finished a working lunch with Mullah [Abdul Ghani Baradar] and his team. First time we'’ve met. Now moving on to talks" aimed at finding a negotiated solution to Afghanistan's 17-year war, Khalilzad tweeted on February 25.

Baradar was released in October after spending eight years in Pakistani custody, but until now has remained in Pakistan and has not made any public appearances.

His appointment as the Taliban’s political chief was widely seen as marking a new push by the militant group to achieve political and diplomatic legitimacy.

"Arrived in Doha to meet with a more authoritative Taliban delegation. This could be a significant moment," Khalilzad wrote on Twitter earlier in the day.

A statement released by the Taliban late February 25 said their negotiating team would continue to be led by Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, while Baradar would provide "instructions" when needed.

Meanwhile, Suhail Shaheen, a spokesman for the militants' political office, told RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan that Taliban and U.S. negotiators held “introductory talks” on February 25.

Shaheen said official talks will begin on February 26.

Meanwhile, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told the Associated Press that there was "a possibility we will reach some results" during the planned four-day talks.

The BBC quoted an unidentified senior Taliban figure as saying that Baradar's authority within the group to make decisions could help "speed up the peace process."

The Taliban, which now reportedly controls nearly half of Afghanistan, has held a series of direct talks with Khalilzad in recent months.

However, the militant group has so far refused to hold direct talks with Afghan officials, calling them "puppets."

During their previous round of talks in Doha in January, U.S. and Taliban negotiators reached the basic framework of a possible peace deal.

The agreement calls for the Taliban to prevent international terrorist groups from basing themselves in Afghanistan and for the United States to withdraw its forces from the country.

U.S. troops have been in Afghanistan since an October 2001 invasion that brought down the Taliban government after it refused to hand over Al-Qaeda extremists, including Osama bin Laden, blamed for launching the September 11 attacks in the United States.

With reporting by AP