KABUL – US Secretary of State may have direct talks with Afghan Taliban, hehas hinted to the media.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has hoped that there is sufficientprogress in the deliberations for him to travel in the next couple of weeksto move it further, TOLO News has reported.
The US was trying to “find pockets” where there was “sufficient agreement”that everyone could begin to move forward, Pompeo said at a farmers’gathering in Iowa on Monday, at a time when Special US Representative forAfghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad and his team are holding talkswith the Taliban in Doha.
“I have a team on the ground right now trying to negotiate with the Taliban in Afghanistan, trying to find a way to achieve an Afghanistan that’s notat war, that’s not engaged in violence, that doesn’t present a threat tothe United States of America, that will respect the fundamental basicrights for every Afghan citizen—women, children—across the full spectrum,”he said.
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Pompeo was responding to a question from farmers after his address at the“Future Farmers of America” event in Iowa.
