Afghan president signs off on Taliban prisoner release, peace talks expected in days

AfghanPresidentAshrafGhanion Mondaysignedadecreetoreleasea final batch of "hardcore"Talibanprisonersdemanded by the militants, sources told Reuters, paving the way for long-awaited peace talks to begin in Qatar.

"It issigned," apresidential palace source said.

Afghanistan's grand assembly, or Loya Jirga, on Sunday approved therelease, under election-year pressure from U.S.PresidentDonald Trump for a deal allowing him to bring home American troops.

The war has ground on since U.S.-backed Afghan forces ousted the IslamistTalibangovernment in late 2001.

"We are ready to sit for talks within a week from when we see ourprisonersreleased. We are ready,”Talibanspokesman Suhail Shaheen told Reuters.

It was not immediately clear when thereleasewould happen.

"The original plan is to travel to Doha on Wednesday and the talks will begin on Sunday," a government source told Reuters before thedecreewassigned.

U.S. Special Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, who reached an agreement with theTalibanin February for the withdrawal of the last U.S. troops, welcomed the development, having spent months trying to bring the militant movement to the negotiating table with the government.

"In the next few days, we expect the completion of prisonerreleases, then travel of the Islamic Republic team to Doha, & from there the immediate start of intra-Afghan negotiations," he said on Twitter.

TheTalibanhad demanded thereleaseof the last400of 5,000 in total as a condition for joining the peace talks.

But the government had been hesitant as theseprisonerswere involved in some of the worst violence, including a 2017 truck bombing near the German embassy in Kabul that killed more than 150 people - the deadliest attack in the 19-year insurgency.

TheTaliban, in power from 1996-2001, previously refused to talk to the Afghan government, dismissing it as a puppet of the United States.