in the talks with the khalilzad was in pakistan yesterday. in islamabad said khalilzad was there to rally support for an agreemenwith the taliban to reduce their attacks that is considered a first step toward endg the 18 year u.s. war in afgnistan. in australia, newildfires are threatening the city ofer canbra. the region around the capital city is now under a state of emergency declaration and residents are being warned to shelter in place if they have not evacd. the fire has burned more than o 88,000 acresforest and farmland south of canberra. six fires in the southeastern region of australia are burning out of control. hot and windy conditions are expected to continue through the weekend. for more on what's happening in the u.s. and around the world, visit pbs.org/newshour. >>hereenivasan: according to united nations, there are nearly 26 million refugees worldwide. nearly seven million of them are syrian. even after they have long fled countries, high poverty and unemployment mean they are still struggling to feed themselves. in the first

envoy zalmay khalilzad to just have everybody come down at least until after the ceremony in go higher now joining me here is which takraw he he is from the afghan afghans unit think tank here in kabul which tax thank you very much for joining us now when you speak to afghans they say yes we want peace but they have a lot of doubt they have a lot of but how what you know you walk around kabul today it's as if nothing is happening it's a normal day when there is a big joke quite a bit of forward among among the afghan people and by look of the things like this social media if you look at the bay the way people are celebrating it there is definitely a feeling of hope among the people of course with a lot of skepticism they are very cautious about the future because in the past similar processes have taken place without delivering the desired result so there is a hope with with the cautiousness the 2nd thing is that there is a quite a bit of misinformation about the whole process as you know a lot of things that get close to the chest of those who have been talking to each other not much

kabul, led byn ross wilson and ambassador khalilzad are speaking with afghan political leaders so i don't have much more for you at this these are very recent developments. it is likely, of course, that these developments could add to the many challenges afghanistan faces including the challenges associated with the peace process. while it is up to afghans to the election outcome, our priority and what we believe to most afghansty of remains peace and the peace process. that we are close to executing a period of a significant and lasting reduction in violence. if this test period is planed -- successfully, it should lead to the signing of a u.s.-taliban agreement and at publicly we will reaffirm our strong commitment to the islamic republic of including our afghan security partners. importantly, the u.s.-taliban toeement will open the door negotiations among the afghan government, the taliban and leaders and inn those talks afghans will tackle the future political their country.r as secretary pompeo has said, finding a true reconciliation path forward will involve a difficult set of conve

never heard of me and that's fine but i'm part of a great team that is proud to support ambassador khalilzad and his effort to try to bring an end to this war and pursue political settlement so we're proud to work with him and i thank you for the opportunity for letting me update you here today on what we have been up to. when this event was arranged, my understanding was it was envisioned as a discussion of the latest developments out of doha including the understanding we reached with the taliban on the reduction in violence and next steps in the political process. i still intend to walk through these developments with you. this morning, however, the independent election commission of afghanistan announced that president ghani received over 50% of the vote, thereby precluding a runoff. we understand that chief executive abdullah and others feel the process is flawed and are challenging the announcement. there -- our embassy in kabul, led by ambassador ross wilson and ambassador khalilzad are currently speaking with afghan political leaders so i don't have much more for you at this time giv

the deal was signed in the qatari capital doha by us special envoy zalmay khalilzad and taliban political, the taliban have promised to prevent afghanistan from again becoming a haven for extremist groups. they have also committed to attend future talks with the government in kabul. the us secretary of state mike pompeo was in doha to witness the signing of the deal. he said the us would closely monitor the taliban's commitment to its terms. the agreement that we will sign today is the true test of this effort. we will closely watch the taliban's compliance with the commitments and calibrate the pace of our withdrawal to their actions. this is how we will ensure that afghanistan never again serves as a base for international terrorists. the negotiation process in doha, with all of its twists and turns, has shown it is possible for us to take this step together. 0ur chief international correspondent lyse doucet is in doha, and says the significance of today's meeting is enormous. the symbol of today's ceremony here in doha is absolutely extraordinary, to see senior us officials and senior

representatives with the ambassador zalmay khalilzad to present all the factions apollo bond or not so that is one question the 2nd thing is when you asked officials i've been asked if the. afghan government supports this agreement all they have said in the last couple of days is that there has been a meeting and there been talks with the. afghan president and talks one but they have not said that the afghan government supports this process so there are some course some questions but there is the appearance at least that there is an agreement. and process that 2nd point however is and this is one of the issues that concerns the afghan government and also some u.s. experts and analysts upgrade. this is the question is. what does this year old does this mean that there will be a full withdrawal of u.s. forces from. is this really a peace agreement or is it really meant to allow the u.s. to withdraw. most of its forces one of the interesting points is that there have been also reports about 3 secret an excuse. for going to agreement one of them is that the u.s. forces would remain on the

i then asked embassy khalilzad to serve as our negotiator to gauge the taliban's sincerity. the agreement that we will sign today is the true test of this effort. we will closely watch the taliban's compliance with their commitments and calibrate the pace of our withdrawal to their actions. this is how we will ensure that afghanistan never again serves as a base for international terrorists. the negotiation process in doha, with all of its twists and turns, has shown it is possible for us to take this step together. over the past seven days, violence levels have reached their lowest point in the last four years. u.s. and afghan forces responded to the reduced number in the attacks by also respecting peace. it was not perfect, but the taliban demonstrated even if only for a week, that when they have the will to be peaceful, they can be. the afghan people have rejoiced. they're moving freely about their country to visit family and friends. they're trading, they're even dancing in the streets. but we're just at the beginning. furthering the cause of peace will require serious w

negotiator zalmay khalilzad is expected to sign a peace deal with lead taliban negotiator mullah radare top u.s. priority is the peace deal's first item: taliban repudiation of al qaeda and isis. >> it contains provisions for the taliban to renounce support of al qaeda in various ways. no training areas, no funding, no-- certainly no organization to plan any kind of s. >> schifrin: scott warden rects the united states institute of peace's afghanistan and central asia program. he says progresse taliban renouncing terrorists, will lead to a staged s. withdrawal. >> it's conditional on whether the taliban upld their agreements, particularly with regard to the links that they have to terrorism, which they are severing. >> schifrin: the biggest challenge may betem number three: direct negotiations between the taliban and a split afghan government. ashraf ghani has celebrated his re-election as president. but his chief rival, abdullahsa abdullah he is president, and rejected recently announced results of last year's election. >> there needs to be some degree of political stability and securi

special envoy zalmay khalilzad himself an immigrant from of down the stun american diplomats military representatives on the taliban held dozens more than a dozen rounds of negotiations and with the talks briefly called off by president trump in september the u.s. team once of the taliban support and its counterterrorism efforts while the taliban demanded a full withdrawal of foreign forces from afghanistan and the us said it would only sign an agreement if the taliban called a ceasefire and scheduled negotiations directly with the afghan government some of and jeff aides spoke exclusively to the taliban spokesman so he. was hopeful this will be the start of bringing stability to the country. it is significant for our people for our country in the whole region. because for one people they will have their independence they will. see their creation ending and i'll show for the original that when stability and peace return 12 months than there will be a phase for. commercial activities and do a lap and we have the attention of up when it's done so that's really really important and signi

secretary of state and zalmay khalilzad who is the special representative for afghanistan and pakistan to actually keep the negotiation process on track well that's something we have to see but they certainly do have more leverage now that the signing is about to take place. for now thank you for that update from washington. now the head of the united nations is calling for an immediate truce in syria and labeled the killing of dozens of turkish troops one of the most alarming moments in the 9 year war and in a new round of shelling late on friday a turk a soldier was killed and 2 others wounded well this comes a day after 33 turkish troops were killed in air raids by russian backed syrian forces the presidents of turkey and russia have since spoken by phone in an effort to defuse tensions and are looking at holding an urgent meeting to discuss new measures to normalize the situation and following the attack on turkish troops ankara warns it would no longer stop syrian refugees from entering europe it's prompted greece on bulgaria to step up security on their borders the u.n. secretary