US renews support for Afghan-Taliban reconciliation process

Following the recent deadly attacks in Kabul, the United States on Monday once again announced support for National Afghan-Taliban reconciliation process and rejected the possibility of adopting a new strategy.

“There is no new strategy in relation to what we are now  with our partners and allies ,” Secretary of State John Kerry said.

John Kerry added that the thing we are busy with now is “Supporting Firmly Mission” and what we are seeing now is the continued presence of Afghan security forces at the Supreme Leader of operations.

“It depends on Taliban to decide about their future. If they condemn violence and terrorism, they will help the national reconciliation process in Afghanistan. We support such process which establishes peace and stability in Afghanistan,” Kerry noted.

Earlier, the Afghan government delegation met with Taliban officials in the Pakistani capital for the first time, in a significant effort to open formal peace negotiations.

The Islamabad meeting, brokered by Pakistani officials after months of intense effort by President Ashraf Ghani to get them more centrally involved in the peace process, was the most promising contact between the two warring sides in years. And it followed a series of less formal encounters between various Afghan officials and Taliban representatives in other countries in recent months.

The Taliban has demanded the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Afghanistan — including any residual forces the United States and NATO plan to leave after the 2014 withdrawal — and the release of all Taliban detainees. The detainees include five militants being held at the prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, whose release the Taliban has previously sought. The United States has turned over the bulk of its battlefield prisoners in Afghanistan to the last government.

The U.S. goal is for the Taliban to publicly and substantively renounce ties with al-Qaeda, end violence in Afghanistan, recognize the Afghan constitution — including rights for minorities and women — and participate in the democratic process there.