KANDAHAR – The United States is ready to join direct negotiations with theTaliban in an effort to end the 17 year-long war in Afghanistan, GeneralJohn Nicholson, the top US commander, said on Monday, amid growingspeculation about possible peace talks.
The comment follows increased diplomatic efforts to seek talks followingunprecedented scenes of unarmed Taliban fighters mingling with Afghansecurity forces on the streets of Kabul and other cities during lastmonth’s surprise ceasefire.
Nicholson, who leads the Nato-led Resolute Support mission, said the UnitedStates recognised it had a key role to play.
“Our Secretary of State, Mr (Mike) Pompeo, has said that we, the UnitedStates, are ready to talk to the Taliban and discuss the role ofinternational forces,” he said.
“We hope that they realise this and that this will help to move the peaceprocess forward.”
Earlier, the New York Times reported that President Donald Trump’sadministration had ordered diplomats to seek direct talks with the Talibanin a bid to jump-start negotiations.
Sohail Shahin, a spokesman for the Taliban’s political office in Qatar,said he was still waiting for confirmation but welcomed signs of the newapproach.
“This is what we wanted and were waiting for, to sit with the US directlyand discuss the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan,” he said.
He said that as a first step, he expected to see Taliban leaders removedfrom a United Nations black list in order to be able to travel. He alsosaid the issue of international troops in Afghanistan would be a majorissue and that the Taliban would be willing to discuss US concerns.
US officials have said that Trump has shown growing impatience with a lackof progress in Afghanistan, where the Taliban control much of the countrydespite a more aggressive campaign of air strikes announced last year.
The insurgents have rejected talks with the government of President AshrafGhani, which they see as illegitimate and instead insisted that they wouldonly talk with the United States.
Pompeo has said that while the overall peace process must be Afghan-led,Washington would be ready to join talks, a shift from its previous positionthat only Ghani’s government had legitimacy to talk with the Taliban.
He has also said the United States is willing to discuss the position ofinternational forces in Afghanistan, which the Taliban have said must leaveas a condition for negotiations.
Senior US officials, including Pompeo and Alice Wells, the StateDepartment’s top diplomat for Afghanistan, have visited Kabul in recentweeks to try to smooth the way for talks.
Many obstacles still remain before a conflict which has killed a recordnumber of civilians this year can end. While all sides say they want talks,and there have been behind-the-scenes contacts, the only major peace talksbroke down almost immediately after they started in 2015.