No preconditions for Afghan peace negotiations: US

WASHINGTON (Pajhwok): The United States on Tuesday welcomed peace talks between the Afghan govement and Hezb-i-Islami of Afghanistan, reaffirming its support for an Afghan-led negotiated resolution to the conflict.

“We support an Afghan-led, Afghan-owned process for a negotiated resolution of the conflict. All relevant groups, including HIA, should be a part of such a political dialogue so that Afghans can talk directly to other Afghans about the future of their country,” the State Department spokesman said.

John Kirby told reporters at his daily news conference the US would welcome political talks that had been taking place.“We’re going to continue to seek reconciliation conditions, including that any reconciled group must end violence – these are end conditions, not preconditions…”

Any reconciled group must end violence, break associations with inteational terrorism and accept Afghanistan’s constitution, as the US had said many times, which also included protections for women and minorities, he explained.

The United States, he said, did not have preconditions going into dialogue, but which must be an Afghan-led, Afghan-owned process, the spokesman continued.

Unaware of any American participation in the talks, Kirby said the Obama administration was watching the process. “We are interested in it and we’ll continue to monitor it, but this is at its core, and we believe needs to remain, an Afghan-owned, Afghan-led process.”

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