KABUL – *The Afghan government on Tuesday said it has no preconditions forpeace talks with the Taliban and that it is willing to discuss the issuewith the group at a location of its choice. *

This comes after the Taliban issued a statement on Monday night saying itwas open to discussions with the United States.

Haroon Chakhansuri, President Ashraf Ghani’s Deputy Chief of Staff forStrategic Communications and Media, told a press conference on Tuesday thatgovernment was ready to negotiate with the Taliban “anywhere that the groupwants”.

“They (Taliban) have twice asked the US and said they are ready for directtalks with the United States. But the Afghan government is telling them(Taliban) that if you are Afghans, come and talk with Afghanistan. TheAfghan government is ready to talk,” Chakhansuri said.

In its statement, the Taliban called on US officials “to talk directly tothe Political Office of Islamic Emirate (in Qatar) regarding a peacefulsolution to the Afghan quandary”.

This move has however been met with mixed reaction by Afghans.

“Taliban are committed to this remark. They have repeatedly said they areready to talk directly with Americans, because the government ofAfghanistan cannot address their requests,” said Sayed Ishaq Gailan, thehead of the National Solidarity Movement of Afghanistan.

“Today we announced our readiness to start peace talks of Afghanistan,because it is an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned process,” the High PeaceCouncil spokesman Sayed Ehsan Taheri said.

“We are ready to prepare a venue wherever anti-government armed oppositionthinks that they will be safe.”

The Taliban’s statement comes just days after Kabul started discussionswith the Qatar government to close the Taliban’s office in Doha as it hashad “no positive consequence in terms of facilitating the peace talks withthe group in Afghanistan”, a senior Afghan government official said.