US Says Taliban Not Ready for Peace Talks

The US State Department’s spokesperson Heather Nauert.

WASHINGTON, Feb 27 (KUNA) — The US State Department on Tuesday rejected the Taliban’s claim that it was ready for peace talks, despite its calls for dialogue, KUNA reported.

The State Department’s spokesperson Heather Nauert told reporters in Washington that “The Taliban does not seem ready at this point to sit down and have conversations about peace talks. We hope eventually they will because that is best way to have peace in Afghan.”

Any peace talks must be “Afghan-run, Afghan-owned,” she noted, saying that the US does not ultimately see a military solution to the situation in Afghanistan.

The Taliban urged the US on Monday to begin talks to end almost 17 years of war in Afghanistan.

Earlier in the month, it published an open letter expressing a desire for peace talks and calling on the American people and lawmakers to pressure the Donald Trump administration into negotiations.

“Ultimately it has be political solution [in Afghanistan]. That can best be done if the Taliban is willing to sit down and have talks. Certainly, the US government could have a role in but that is really up to Afghanistan.” She said.

This comes as diplomatic officials from the United States, India and Afghanistan gathered in Kabul the fourth round of US-India-Afghanistan trilateral consultations on the margins of the Kabul Process Conference.

Officials from around 25 countries in the Kabul Process are due to meet in the Afghan capital on Wednesday.

“We anticipate we will have candid conversations about peace, security, overall connectivity building and those types of things regarding Afghanistan. The fact that the meeting is happening is something that is really impressive and we look forward to being a part of that meeting,” Nauert said. (T/RS5/RS1)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)