US enters into direct Taliban talks
 

According to the report by The New Yorker magazine on Saturday, the administration of US President Barak Obama has entered into direct and secret negotiations in order "to assess which figures in the Taliban's leadership, if any, might be willing to engage in formal Afghan peace negotiations, and under what conditions."

The report comes a day after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated that only a political solution will end the war in Afghanistan as she expressed hope for splitting off the rank-and-file Taliban from al-Qaeda, a Press TV correspondent reported.

For the first time, Clinton has sent a direct message to the Taliban demanding they lay down their arms and join an Afghan government-led reconciliation, or face utter defeat from US led troops, the correpondent added.

She made the remarks in a speech at the Asia Society in New York on the same day that two US-led foreign soldiers lost their lives in Afghanistan's troubled north after a man wearing an Afghan national army uniform opened fire on the foreign troops in Baghlan province.

Clinton also expounded on US plans to begin the gradual withdrawal of troops in July and complete the drawdown by the end of 2014.

The Taliban have publicly said they will not enter into dialogue with the Afghan government and the US administration until all 152,000 US-led foreign troops based in the country leave. All previous attempts at holding talks with the group have failed.

Elsewhere in her remarks, Clinton claimed that the surge in the number of troops over the past year was part of a strategy to "split the weakened Taliban off from al-Qaeda and reconcile those who will renounce violence and accept the Afghan constitution."

The United States and its allies are calling for talks with the Taliban as the war has entered its tenth year in Afghanistan.

Despite the presence of NATO forces, the violence and daily militant attacks have not been subsided in war-ravaged Afghanistan.

Last year was the deadliest of the nearly decade-long war for US-led troops, with more than 700 killed, compared to just more than 500 in 2009.

At least 48 foreign soldiers have lost their lives in the country so far this year.

Official figures show at least 2,330 NATO soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

[url=http://www.presstv.ir/detail/165948.html]PressTV - 'US enters into direct Taliban talks'[/url]