WASHINGTON – A top US official has said President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani hasoffered the Taliban group for participation in peace talks as the officialinsist that the offer did not mean that the group should surrender.

Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Alice Wells of the Bureau of South andCentral Asian Affairs told reporters that President Ghani offered adignified process during the Kabul Process-II summit.

“This is not a surrender that’s being offered to the Taliban, but adignified process for reaching a political framework.

And again, he emphasized that this is negotiations without preconditions, aprocess that would lead to a cessation of violence, halt the ties withterrorism, and respect for the Afghanistan constitution,” she added.

According to Alice “But it was clear, I think, that the Government ofAfghanistan has listened carefully to the Taliban and was responsive to theTaliban in underscoring that issues like office and passports and delisting– the mechanics of how you actually arrange a dignified negotiation – werevery much in their – in the forefront of their thinking and included inthis offer that was put forward by President Ghani.”

She said “I mean, clearly, I think that there is a point of agreement withthe Taliban that there needs to be a political solution, and I think we’vemade it very clear under the South Asia strategy that we will not allow theTaliban to win militarily, but the goal of the South Asia strategy is toprovide a path to a political settlement.”