Taliban hold talks with US on peace plan

WASHINGTON: A senior Taliban official says the insurgent group has held the first direct talks with a US official in a preliminary discussion about future plans for peace negotiations.

This week’s meeting with Alice Wells the US’ top diplomat for South Asia was an attempt to jump-start talks on ending Washington’s longest military engagement, a senior Taliban official said early Saturday.

US officials neither confirmed nor denied a meeting took place. The Taliban have long demanded direct talks with Washington. The discussion was preliminary initial and both discussed a future meeting and contacts, said the official on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.

It wasn’t clear when the next meeting would be held or with whom but he was certain one would be held.