Afghanistan has released the first 80 of a final 400 Tal­iban pris­on­ers, paving the way for nego­ti­a­tions between the war­ring sides in Afghanistan’s pro­tract­ed con­flict, the gov­ern­ment said Fri­day. Javid Faisal, spokesman for the Afghan Nation­al Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil, made the announce­ment. Tal­iban offi­cials, speak­ing on con­di­tion of anonymi­ty because they are not autho­rized to speak to the media, said 86 pris­on­ers were freed.