Washington: The US Tuesday said that the door
of peace talks with the Taliban are open if they are prepared to renounce violence.
"We are at a preliminary stage of trying to support
an Afghan-Afghan process. It`s been hard to get that going,
but the door is open, but only if the Taliban are prepared to
renounce violence," said State Department spokesperson
Victoria Nuland.
"Our policy remains that those Taliban who want to
continue to have their way by force, to try to overthrow the
Afghan constitution, to fight the people of Afghanistan, fight
the freedoms and human rights that they have attained; we are
going to support the Afghans in meeting them on the
battlefield," she said in response to a question at her daily
news conference.
However, she said the US was "willing to support a
process of reconciliation with those Taliban who are willing
to renounce violence and get into talks".
She said the next step will be for those Taliban who
want to sit down and talk "to issue a statement that renounces
violence and makes clear that they are committed to a real
peace process".
Nuland said this process will only succeed if it results
in a conversation with people who are ready "to completely
renounce violence, break ties with al-Qaeda, support the
constitution of Afghanistan in all of its manifestations,
including the rights it provides for women, minorities and all
Afghans".
PTI
