White House denies plan for talks with Taliban
The White House denies there are meetings planned between US officials and representatives of the Afghan militant group, Taliban, in Qatar.
"The United States currently has no meetings with the Taliban scheduled in Doha," National Security Council Spokesperson Bernadette Meehan said on Thursday.
"We remain supportive of an Afghan-led reconciliation process whereby the Taliban and the Afghans engage in talks toward a settlement to resolve the conflict in Afghanistan," she added.
Senior Pakistani army officials announced earlier in the day that Taliban had signaled they were open to holding talks with US officials.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesman for the militant group, also confirmed that a Taliban delegation was in Qatar, without giving further details.
"The first session will take place today in Qatar and then there would be another session on Friday. Let us see what happens as talks before did not yield any results," a senior Taliban member told Reuters by telephone from Qatar.
Previous efforts to get talks going in Qatar failed after the Afghan government objected to the opening of a Taliban office in the Persian Gulf state.
The United States and its allies invaded Afghanistan in 2001 as part of the so-called war on terror. The offensive removed the Taliban from power, but after more than 13 years, insecurity remains the order of the day across the country.
HRJ/HRJ
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