WASHINGTON: The United States expressed the hope that Taliban will eventually join the peace process by the Afghan government as there was no military solution to the problem there, Radio Pakistan reported on Thursday.
At a briefing at the US State Department, spokesperson Heather Nauert said the US was enthusiastic about the Kabul Peace Process Conference, which is an Afghan-led, Afghan-owned initiative to try to bring together different international partners to coordinate international efforts to support Afghanistan’s pursuit of peace.
“The Taliban, unfortunately, does not seem ready at this point to sit down and have conversations about peace talks,” she said but expressed the hope that they will eventually, as that is the best way to be able to have peace in Afghanistan.
[bs-quote quote=”Ultimately, we don’t see there being a military solution to the situation in Afghanistan. Ultimately, it has to be a political situation. And that can best be done, if the Taliban is willing to sit down and have talks certainly the United States Government could have a role in that. But that’s really up to Afghanistan, but it has to be Afghan-led and Afghan-owned.” style=”default” align=”center” author_name=”Heather Nauert” author_job=” US State Department Spokesperson” author_avatar=”https://arynews.tv/en/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/us_quote.jpg”][/bs-quote]
Pakistan is among more than 20 countries which will attend the 2nd Kabul Process Conference, an initiative by the Afghan government that started last year.
In a statement issued on Monday, the Taliban asked US officials to talk directly to their political office regarding a peace solution and said that Washington must realize there was no military solution to the conflict, according to a media report.
When asked to comment on the Taliban statement, spokesperson Nauert said that the long US position had been that any peace talks with Afghanistan have to be Afghan-led and Afghan-owned.
She praised the Afghan government for holding the conference in spite of terrorist attacks in the past weeks, saying that the fact that the Afghans are willing to go forward with that is impressive and a testament to their bravery.
“We anticipate they will have candid conversations about peace, about security, about overall connectivity, building and those types of things regarding Afghanistan, but also the broader region. The fact that the meeting is happening is something that is really impressive, and we look forward to being a part of that meeting,” she added.
Replying to a question about another conference being held in Tashkent in Uzbekistan, she said that it’s being led by the Government of Uzbekistan and the government of Afghanistan will take part. The US Acting Assistant Secretary Alice Wells will also attend the Tashkent conference.
“We consider Uzbekistan as having a historic role in supporting stability in Afghanistan, and that conference is considered a real return to the international stage in a lot of ways. So we look forward to that, she added.
