U.S. Official: U.S. - Taliban Peace Talks Ended With 'Positive Signals' Last Week

Taliban walk as they celebrate ceasefire in Ghanikhel district of Nangarhar province, Afghanistan June 16, 2018. REUTERS/Parwiz/File Photo

Reuters: 'Very positive signals' after U.S., Taliban talks: sources

PESHAWAR, Pakistan/KABUL (Reuters) - A meeting between a senior U.S. diplomat and Taliban representatives in Doha last week to discuss a possible ceasefire ended with “very positive signals” and a decision to hold more meetings, people with knowledge of the talks said on Sunday.

The meeting between a delegation led by Alice Wells, deputy assistant secretary in the State Department’s Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, and Taliban representatives was first reported in The Wall Street Journal but has not been officially confirmed.

According to one Taliban official, who said he was part of a four-member delegation, there were “very positive signals” from the meeting, which he said was conducted in a “friendly atmosphere” in a Doha hotel.

“You can’t call it peace talks,” he said. “These are a series of meetings for initiating formal and purposeful talks. We agreed to meet again soon and resolve the Afghan conflict through dialogue.”

He said the talks had been held without the presence of Afghan government officials at the insistence of the Taliban.

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WNU Editor: I am not optimistic of these talks. The Taliban want only one thing from the U.S. and its allies .... withdrawal from Afghanistan so that they can then intensify their military operations against the Afghan government. The fact that these were held without the presence of Afghan government officials at the insistence of the Taliban is all that anyone needs to know.