KABUL – A senior Taliban official says the insurgent group has held thefirst direct talks with a U.S. official in a preliminary discussion aboutfuture plans for peace negotiations.
This week’s meeting with Alice Wells, the U.S.’s top diplomat for SouthAsia, was an attempt to jump-start talks on ending Washington’s longestmilitary engagement, a senior Taliban official told *The AssociatedPress* earlySaturday.
U.S. officials neither confirmed nor denied a meeting took place.
The Taliban have long demanded direct talks with Washington.ARTICLE CONTINUES AFTER AD
“The discussion was preliminary, initial and both discussed a futuremeeting and contacts,” said the official on condition of anonymity becausehe was not authorized to speak to the media.
It wasn’t clear when the next meeting would be held or with whom, but hewas certain one would be held.