The United States and Taliban have agreed to a new round of formal talks on ending the war in Afghanistan. Delegates from both sides will meet in Doha, Qatar, this week for their first negotiations in over a year. The Obama administration will send a delegation of senior State Department and White House officials. The agenda item is said to include the Taliban’s ties to al-Qaeda and the potential swapping of prisoners. Speaking from the G8 summit in Northern Ireland, President Obama said the United States will continue military operations in Afghanistan while pursuing what he expects to be a slow diplomatic track.

President Obama: “We’re going to continue to support these efforts in partnership with the Afghan government. I want to repeat, we don’t anticipate this process will be easy or quick, but we must pursue it in parallel with our military approach. And we, in the meantime, remain fully committed to our military efforts to defeat al-Qaeda and to support the Afghan National Security Forces.”