(WASHINGTON) — The United States is open to holding direct talks with the Taliban to encourage negotiations between the militant group and the Afghan government to end 17 years of war, U.S. officials said.

That marks a tactical shift by the Trump administration, which has previously only appeared willing to participate in discussions with the Taliban if those talks also involve the Afghan government. The U.S. officials said Monday that Afghan-to-Afghan negotiation remains the goal of any engagement with the militants.

The officials were not authorized to speak to media and requested anonymity.

The Taliban have long refused direct talks with the Afghan government, demanding instead to negotiate with Washington. The militants have persisted in that stance despite Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s unilateral extension of a holiday cease-fire last month in hopes of encouraging the militants to come to the bargaining table. With the Taliban continuing to mount deadly attacks, Ghani ordered government forces to resume military operations this month.

The unprecedented, three-day cease-fire by both sides had offered a rare glimpse of peace for Afghans during which militants fraternized with security force members.

A Taliban official in the small Gulf Arab nation of Qatar told The Associated Press on Monday that no American official or intermediary has been in touch with them to start direct talks, and it had only heard of it in the media. The administration’s willingness to hold direct talks with the Taliban was first reported by The New York Times on Sunday.

The Taliban official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because he was authorized to speak to journalists, said, “We wait for them to officially inform us.” But he added that if the U.S. is interested in talks, it should take steps to get Taliban leaders off a sanctions blacklist and support the formal opening of the Taliban office in Qatar where its political representatives reside. The official reiterated the Taliban’s call for the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan.

Asked if the U.S. was willing to hold direct talks with the Taliban, the State Department said Monday, the United States “is exploring all avenues to advance a peace process in close consultation with the Afghan government.”

The department added that “any negotiations over the political future of Afghanistan will be between the Taliban and Afghan government.”

Last August, President Donald Trump launched an Afghanistan strategy that centered on boosting the capabilities of Afghan security forces and aiming — with help from Pakistan and other interested nations — to compel the militants to negotiate. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Afghanistan last week to reinforce its support for talks.

“The United States will support, facilitate, and participate in these peace discussions, but peace must be decided by the Afghans and settled among them. We expect that these peace talks will include a discussion of the role of international actors and forces,” Pompeo said after meeting Ghani in Kabul on July 9.

The U.S. invaded Afghanistan following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, and ousted the Taliban government that had hosted al-Qaeda. It has about 15,000 troops in Afghanistan, mostly for training government forces.

The conflict appears stalemated, with insurgents controlling or contesting more than 40 percent of the country. The U.N. mission in Afghanistan said Sunday that 1,692 civilians were killed in violence in the first six months of this year, the highest six-month death toll since the systematic documentation of civilian casualties started in 2009.</s>Dushanbe (Tajikistan) (AFP) - Russia and Tajikistan on Tuesday began joint military exercises near the Tajik-Afghan border to prepare to ward off potential Taliban attacks.

More than 10,000 troops, mostly Tajik reservists, will take part in the first such drills in the area by the ex-Soviet allies, Tajikistan's defence ministry said.

Combined forces will practice "eliminating terrorists who broke through" from Afghanistan in an imagined incursion, it said.

Some 400 soldiers and 80 pieces of Russian military equipment were deployed from a military base in Tajikistan for exercises due to last until Friday, the Russian army said.

The drills will take place just over the border from the Afghan province of Badakhshan.

Russia and Tajikistan have intensified military cooperation since US-led forces began withdrawing from Afghanistan in large numbers in 2014.

This is the first time they have held exercises in the sometimes restive Tajik province of Gorno-Badakhshan, where clashes between government and rebel forces took place in 2012.

Previous exercises were held in the country's southern Khatlon province.

China has beefed up its security assistance in the country in recent times, notably building infrastructure on the 1,300-kilometre (800-mile) border between Tajikistan and Afghanistan and holding its own drills with Tajikistan in 2016.

The border is a haven for drug traffickers and was guarded by Russian troops before they stepped back in 2005. Afghanistan is the world's biggest opium producer.</s>Last week saw a historic meeting in Islamabad between the intelligence chiefs of China, Russia, Pakistan and Iran. While the details of the meeting were not disclosed beyond statements implying that counter-terrorism was a dominating theme, it is a safe assumption that the war in Afghanistan was a major topic of discussion.

Today, following on from the intelligence shared between national partners, the Russian President’s special envoy on Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov has stated that the Taliban controls over half of Afghan territory at the present time. Due to the remote geography of much of Afghanistan, it is difficult to say with exactitude just how much territory of Afghanistan the Taliban control, with most estimates being anywhere between 35% and 65% of all Afghan territory.

The revelation from Kabulov is therefore crucial as it represents Russia’s official determination of a highly contested question regarding just how profound the resurgence of the Taliban has been since 2001. Equally important to determining how much territory the group which remains outlawed in Russia controls, is determining how much political influence the Taliban have and where. The answer to this comes relatively easily. Perhaps ironically, the Taliban now control much of northern Afghanistan which in the 1990s was the base of the anti-Taliban coalition Northern Alliance which for a time was supported by Iran, Russia and India. Today not only has the internal political geography of Afghanistan changed but so too have international positions regarding the internal politics and disputes of Afghanistan.

The biggest shifts in policy among the concerned powers since the 1990s is as follows:

–While still outlawed in Russia, Moscow now accepts that in a clearly articulated peace process, certain elements of the Afghan Taliban will have to be involved in a negotiated political settlement within Afghanistan as there is no other realistic way to hold Afghanistan together as a peaceful state.

–While still clearly ideologically opposed to the Taliban, Iran has decided to back a general peace process rather than fund specific anti-Taliban factions as was the case in the 1990s when after 1996 the Taliban formed a theocratic government in Kabul.

–Going back to the 1980s, China’s Afghan policy was framed within the context of the Sino-Soviet split which saw neighbours on historically good terms act as rivals. This also helped to maintain good Sino-Pakistan relations even during the era of the widely pro-US General Zia. Now however, the Afghan policy of Beijing and Moscow is virtually identical as both states work closely in calls for a peace process as well as coordinating efforts to preempt a fragile situation on Afghanistan’s borders from becoming worse.

–In many ways, Pakistan’s position has remained the most consistent, certainly since the 1990s. Pakistan has historically feared Pasthun ethno-nationalism being used by Kabul or Kabul’s de-facto overlords as a means of stirring provocations inside Pakistan’s borders. Furthermore, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) is aware that those who seek to threaten the unity and territorial integrity of Pakistan have and could continue to use Afghanistan as a base for terror operations in the south-western province of Balochistan.

Because of this, Pakistan has long sought a stable/united government in Kabul that neither has territorial ambitions which could threaten regional stability and likewise, Pakistan has sought internal security in Afghanistan in order for the country not to become a base of anti-Pakistan operations. Therefore, just as Pakistan has long asserted that Afghanistan requires stability combined with a good neighbourly policy of non-interference in the affairs of others, now Iran, China and Russia have come to embrace this pragmatic and security based position as the best possible way to end decades of conflict in Afghanistan.

As Iran’s southern province of Sistan and Baluchestan is now threatened by many of the same extremist forces that have long threatened Pakistan’s province of Balochistan, Islamabad and Tehran are now working ever more closely on coordinated strategies. This highly positive rapprochement between neighbours who prior to the 1980s were on extremely good terms is a crucial development in creating a united front of responsible nations in Asia.

In so far as Iran-Pakistan cooperation is required regarding neighbouring provinces, the Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Mohammad Hossein Baqeri is currently in Pakistan for a three day visit to discuss these matters in a clear sign that if anything, lats week’s meeting between Chinese, Russian, Iranian and Pakistani officials helped to strengthen ties between Tehran and Islamabad.

Russia restates calls for multiparty talks which include the Taliban

Zamir Kabulov defined Russia’s contemporary policies and goals for Afghanistan in the following way:

Kabulov reiterated that the continued US presence in Afghanistan makes such a format less easy to achieve because rather than viewing the Kabul government as a diverse coalition of ethno-political forces, the Taliban continues to view the government as a US puppet in spite of some recent signs of an partial independent streak. Kabulov continued, “They [Taliban] don’t’ want to hold talks with it [Kabul government] but want to negotiate separately with the Americans”.

The views expressed by Kabulov encouraging a multi-party dialogue process which is inclusive of the Taliban combined with a multinational format for hosting these discussions is now the favoured format not only in Russia but also in China, Pakistan, Iran and the concerned central Asian republics. By contrast, the US and India remain reticent to embrace such a format.

For the US, it is a matter of seeking to prolong the Afghan conflict so as to create a permanent roadblock to further trade inter-connectivity between China, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran while it also serves the US strategic interest to have troops and military resources on the borders of Pakistan and Iran in particular. Finally, as part of the overtly cynical US strategy in Afghanistan, while much of the violence in the country prevents the US from exploiting Afghanistan’s mineral resources to the fullest extent, the matter is now one of keeping others away from Afghanistan’s natural mineral wealth as part of a wider stalling tactic designed to retard the progress of regional cooperation between sovereign nations.

For India, the Afghan issue remains a simple matter of not wanting to lose the country as a current and future base from which to covertly launch anti-Pakistan provocations. Afghan territory has been useful to India in this way in the past and for elements in India’s RAW (intelligence agency) Afghanistan is still coveted for this purpose. Thus, for both Washington and New Delhi a policy of “the worst the better” can by contrasted with a Russian, Chinese, Iranian, Pakistani and pan-central Asian policy of “the last best hope for peace and stability is a genuine and meaningful all parties format”.

While the US remains the most powerful singular military force in Afghanistan, in many respects the Taliban are once again the most potent political force in the country. Paradoxically this is the case both because of and in spite of the US presence. On the one hand, the fact that the Taliban have been able to politically flourish in recent years is symptomatic of the disconnect between obvious American military power and America’s political powerlessness in Afghanistan. At the same time, while the Taliban were once considered taboo for some Afghans including in the Pashtun ethnic community, after years of a seemingly endless US presence in the country, the Taliban are now viewed by many Pashtuns as a kind of resistance organisation which is supported because the group is seen as an effective alternative to the US model occupation that has been rubber stamped by Kabul.

This manifold crisis is one that China, Russia, Pakistan, Iran and the central Asian republics have committed to solve through collective peace making, although even this offers no guarantee of a Kabul-Taliban ceasefire let alone of a future US withdrawal. In any case, this is the only viable option when it comes to attempting anything resembling a lasting peace.</s>MOSCOW, July 15 (Sputnik) – The Taliban movement controls over half of the territory of Afghanistan and the local population has more trust in its authorities rather than in the central government, Russian Foreign Ministry’s Second Asian Department Director Zamir Kabulov told Kommersant newspaper in an interview.

According to Kabulov, the central authorities of Afghanistan imply the integration of the Taliban when they are talking about settlement of the situation in the country.

“In practice, Taliban is very much integrated into the military and political life of Afghanistan, it controls more than half of the country’s territory,” Kabulov said, adding that Afghans have more trust in the Taliban’s system of management, which operates in parallel with the central leadership.

Kabulov specified that the Taliban is present in the majority of provinces, and in some cases the movement is a “key force” despite the existence of local administrations.

The security situation in Afghanistan has been unstable for years as the government continues to fight Taliban militants for control of the state. A number of terrorist groups have been operating in the country, further complicating the situation.</s>(WASHINGTON) — The United States is open to holding direct talks with the Taliban to encourage negotiations between the militant group and the Afghan government to end 17 years of war, U.S. officials said.

That marks a tactical shift by the Trump administration, which has previously only appeared willing to participate in discussions with the Taliban if those talks also involve the Afghan government. The U.S. officials said Monday that Afghan-to-Afghan negotiation remains the goal of any engagement with the militants.

The officials were not authorized to speak to media and requested anonymity.

The Taliban have long refused direct talks with the Afghan government, demanding instead to negotiate with Washington. The militants have persisted in that stance despite Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s unilateral extension of a holiday cease-fire last month in hopes of encouraging the militants to come to the bargaining table. With the Taliban continuing to mount deadly attacks, Ghani ordered government forces to resume military operations this month.

The unprecedented, three-day cease-fire by both sides had offered a rare glimpse of peace for Afghans during which militants fraternized with security force members.

A Taliban official in the small Gulf Arab nation of Qatar told The Associated Press on Monday that no American official or intermediary has been in touch with them to start direct talks, and it had only heard of it in the media. The administration’s willingness to hold direct talks with the Taliban was first reported by The New York Times on Sunday.

The Taliban official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because he was authorized to speak to journalists, said, “We wait for them to officially inform us.” But he added that if the U.S. is interested in talks, it should take steps to get Taliban leaders off a sanctions blacklist and support the formal opening of the Taliban office in Qatar where its political representatives reside. The official reiterated the Taliban’s call for the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan.

Asked if the U.S. was willing to hold direct talks with the Taliban, the State Department said Monday, the United States “is exploring all avenues to advance a peace process in close consultation with the Afghan government.”

The department added that “any negotiations over the political future of Afghanistan will be between the Taliban and Afghan government.”

Last August, President Donald Trump launched an Afghanistan strategy that centered on boosting the capabilities of Afghan security forces and aiming — with help from Pakistan and other interested nations — to compel the militants to negotiate. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Afghanistan last week to reinforce its support for talks.

“The United States will support, facilitate, and participate in these peace discussions, but peace must be decided by the Afghans and settled among them. We expect that these peace talks will include a discussion of the role of international actors and forces,” Pompeo said after meeting Ghani in Kabul on July 9.

The U.S. invaded Afghanistan following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, and ousted the Taliban government that had hosted al-Qaeda. It has about 15,000 troops in Afghanistan, mostly for training government forces.

The conflict appears stalemated, with insurgents controlling or contesting more than 40 percent of the country. The U.N. mission in Afghanistan said Sunday that 1,692 civilians were killed in violence in the first six months of this year, the highest six-month death toll since the systematic documentation of civilian casualties started in 2009.</s>KABUL — Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has dismissed the Taliban’s rejection of his offer of peace talks, suggesting that the militant group can still be persuaded to come to the negotiating table.

In an exclusive interview with RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan in Kabul on July 16, Ghani said the Taliban’s opposition to peace talks was not “a full rejection.”

“It’s like when you ask someone’s hand in marriage and the family of the bride says no several times [before relenting],” said Ghani, referring to a culture in which refusal is seen as a sign of humility.

“In reality, it is likely that we will get a positive answer,” Ghani said.

Earlier this month, the Taliban said it would not negotiate with the Kabul government after a first-ever cease-fire between the two sides coinciding with the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr raised hopes of jump-starting long-stalled talks.

Ghani declared an end to the truce, but he also called on the Taliban to resume peace negotiations. The extremist group Islamic State (IS) was not included in the cessation of hostilities.

The unilateral government truce lasted from June 12-30. The Taliban adhered to its own June 15-17 cease-fire that prompted jubilant scenes of unarmed Taliban fighters congregating in government-held cities and posing for photos with residents and government officials.

Ghani said in his interview that the Taliban has lost any credibility it might have had among Afghans.

“Afghan clerics don’t want an intensification of the conflict, they want peace – they want real peace. Therefore, if a small group of the Taliban think that they still have a shred of religious credibility, [they’re wrong]. It has ended.”

On July 11, a summit of religious scholars organized by the Saudi-based Organization of Islamic Cooperation called for a new cease-fire in Afghanistan, a request dismissed out of hand by the Taliban.

“The cease-fire demonstrated that they want to be on the same side of their countrymen,” Ghani added.

Ghani also reiterated his calls for Pakistan and other neighboring countries to work together to eliminate terrorism and create regional stability.

Afghanistan and the United States accuse neighboring Pakistan of harboring the Afghan Taliban, a claim Islamabad rejects. Iran and Russia have confirmed they have contacts with the Taliban, but insist that they are aimed at ensuring the safety of its citizens in Afghanistan and encouraging the Taliban to join peace talks.

“Our stance is that if Taliban are independent, they should make decisions independently, but it’s necessary that Pakistan help,” Ghani said.

For years, Kabul and Washington have pressured Islamabad to bring the militants to the negotiating table.

The Taliban’s rejection of Ghani’s offer is a blow to hopes for lasting peace in the war-torn country where the United Nations said civilian casualties had reached a record high in the first half of 2018.

The insurgent group has demanded the withdrawal of foreign troops from the country as a precondition for talks and maintained that it wants to talk directly with the United States, which toppled the Taliban regime in 2001. The militants consider the Kabul government a “Western puppet.”

The UN has blamed the Taliban for 40 percent of the civilian deaths in the country, while 52 percent of the attacks were attributed to Islamic State militants.

Afghanistan has been hit by a string of deadly suicide attacks since the end of the cease-fire, including a July 16 Taliban attack on a police checkpoint in the eastern Nangarhar Province that killed seven police officers.

Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.</s>KABUL -- Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has dismissed the Taliban’s rejection of his offer of peace talks, suggesting that the militant group can still be persuaded to come to the negotiating table.

In an exclusive interview with RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan in Kabul on July 16, Ghani said the Taliban’s opposition to peace talks was not “a full rejection.”

“It’s like when you ask someone’s hand in marriage and the family of the bride says no several times [before relenting],” said Ghani, referring to a culture in which refusal is seen as a sign of humility.

“In reality, it is likely that we will get a positive answer," Ghani said.

Earlier this month, the Taliban said it would not negotiate with the Kabul government after a first-ever cease-fire between the two sides coinciding with the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr raised hopes of jump-starting long-stalled talks.

Ghani declared an end to the truce, but he also called on the Taliban to resume peace negotiations. The extremist group Islamic State (IS) was not included in the cessation of hostilities.

The unilateral government truce lasted from June 12-30. The Taliban adhered to its own June 15-17 cease-fire that prompted jubilant scenes of unarmed Taliban fighters congregating in government-held cities and posing for photos with residents and government officials.

Ghani said in his interview that the Taliban has lost any credibility it might have had among Afghans.

“Afghan clerics don’t want an intensification of the conflict, they want peace – they want real peace. Therefore, if a small group of the Taliban think that they still have a shred of religious credibility, [they’re wrong]. It has ended.”

On July 11, a summit of religious scholars organized by the Saudi-based Organization of Islamic Cooperation called for a new cease-fire in Afghanistan, a request dismissed out of hand by the Taliban.

“The cease-fire demonstrated that they want to be on the same side of their countrymen,” Ghani added.

Ghani also reiterated his calls for Pakistan and other neighboring countries to work together to eliminate terrorism and create regional stability.

Afghanistan and the United States accuse neighboring Pakistan of harboring the Afghan Taliban, a claim Islamabad rejects. Iran and Russia have confirmed they have contacts with the Taliban, but insist that they are aimed at ensuring the safety of its citizens in Afghanistan and encouraging the Taliban to join peace talks.

“Our stance is that if Taliban are independent, they should make decisions independently, but it’s necessary that Pakistan help,” Ghani said.

For years, Kabul and Washington have pressured Islamabad to bring the militants to the negotiating table. 

 The Taliban’s rejection of Ghani’s offer is a blow to hopes for lasting peace in the war-torn country where the United Nations said civilian casualties had reached a record high in the first half of 2018.

The insurgent group has demanded the withdrawal of foreign troops from the country as a precondition for talks and maintained that it wants to talk directly with the United States, which toppled the Taliban regime in 2001. The militants consider the Kabul government a “Western puppet.”

The UN has blamed the Taliban for 40 percent of the civilian deaths in the country, while 52 percent of the attacks were attributed to Islamic State militants.

Afghanistan has been hit by a string of deadly suicide attacks since the end of the cease-fire, including a July 16 Taliban attack on a police checkpoint in the eastern Nangarhar Province that killed seven police officers.</s>DUSHANBE: Russia and Tajikistan on Tuesday began joint military exercises near the Tajik-Afghan border to prepare to ward off potential Taliban attacks. More than 10,000 troops, mostly Tajik reservists, will take part in the first such drills in the area by the ex-Soviet allies, Tajikistan’s defence ministry said. Combined forces will practice “eliminating terrorists who broke through” from Afghanistan in an imagined incursion, it said. Some 400 soldiers and 80 pieces of Russian military equipment were deployed from a military base in Tajikistan for exercises due to last until Friday, the Russian army said.</s>[ Editor’s Note: The US is showing itself on defense. One of the oldest PR tactics is always to accuse your opponent first of doing anything he can nail you with, as the majority of the public believes the initial accuser.

But the US is pushing a string here on the exploitation of the Afghan drug trade. We have reams of US involvement on that, including a former Bush cabinet Secretary that started a fake dry-cleaning chain of facilities in Afghanistan to import cleaning supplies for it, but which turned out to be the chemicals need to refine opium into heroin.

It was not too long after that even Predator drones were flying heroin out to Balkans bases with high security protection, part of the Bush massive “outsourcing” of security operations at the time. That money has been followed into black ops and a huge array of political campaigns ever since – virtually a heroin Santa Claus.

Zakharova could have been a surgeon, as she can fillet you while you are standing without you feeling a thing … Jim W. Dean ]

Jim's Editor’s Notes are solely crowdfunded via PayPal

 Jim's work includes research, field trips, Heritage TV Legacy archiving & more. Thanks for helping. Click to donate >>

Russia has accused the US military of being the chief sponsor of Taliban militants in Afghanistan, saying that during the active presence of US-led NATO forces in the country, the production and distribution of narcotics had drastically surged there.

The accusations were raised on Thursday by Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. She was responding to earlier US claims that Russia was collaborating with the Takfiri militants – what the official said was meant to mask America’s own “sponsorship of the Taliban” in Afghanistan.

Zakharova said Russian had limited contacts with the Taliban but said this was meant to ensure the safety of Russian citizens in the country and to support the stalled Afghan national conciliation process.

She said there was already evidence of US sponsorship of Taliban and emphasized that several probes conducted by special committees of the US Congress testified to that. Instances of this, Zakharova said, were reports that acknowledged certain portions of US weapons that had been reported “stolen” or fallen into “wrong hands” had in fact reached the Taliban.

The official recalled a 2016 report by then US defense secretary in which he had revealed that 1.5 million items of American weaponry had disappeared in Afghanistan and Iraq. Zakharova emphasized that armaments written off by the Pentagon as inventory losses could be used to equip “an entire army,” Moscow-based Sputnik International reported.

US sponsorship of terrorism in Afghanistan has also been underlined by the country’s previous president Hamid Karzai, who accused the US last November of collaborating with the Deash terror group in his country.

Accusing Washington of allowing Daesh to flourish inside Afghanistan, Karzai stated in an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera news network:

“In my view under the full presence, surveillance, military, political, intelligence, Daesh has emerged, and for two years the Afghan people came, cried loud about their suffering, of violations. Nothing was done.”

Karzai further stressed that the administration of US President Donald Trump used Daesh terrorism as an excuse to drop the massive GBU-43 bomb – the largest non-nuclear bomb used by the US military — on Afghanistan in April 2017, pointing out that “the next day, Daesh takes the next district in Afghanistan.”

“That proves to us that there is a hand in it and that hand can be no one else but them [the US] in Afghanistan,” said the former Afghan president who originally rose to power with Washington’s blessings.

The Russian Foreign Ministry official also reiterated that constant US claims against Russia were meant to conceal Washington’s own political-military failures across Afghanistan.

Zakharova emphasized that during the massive invasion of Afghanistan by NATO and American forces under the pretense of ‘war on terror,’ the country had become a focal point for the production and distribution of narcotics while the threat of terrorism was never eliminated in the war-ravaged nation.

A US-led military force invaded Afghanistan in 2001 as a response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist incidents in New York and Washington, vowing to oust the Taliban regime ruling over the country and bringing peace and stability to the nation.

The massive military occupation lasted until December 28, 2014, when the mostly Western military forces withdrew most of its troops and announced the conclusion of the combat mission.

In 2015, the US-led NATO initiated a new mission, code-named “Resolute Support,” which the announced objective of providing training assistance to Afghanistan’s security forces. Nevertheless, the still ongoing mission has failed to bring any sort of peace, security or stability to the Asian country.

This is while the Taliban and its newly-emerging terrorism rival, Daesh – which is gaining growing influence in Afghanistan with thousands of militant forces — continue to control more than half of Afghanistan’s territory, according to official figures.

Meanwhile, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman further blamed the unstable situation across the Middle East and North Africa, as well as a surge in international terrorism on “the NATO member states’ military gambles.”</s>US prosecutors say Russian government hackers exploited some of America's own computer infrastructure to steal politically sensitive information.

US prosecutors say Russian government hackers exploited some of America's own computer infrastructure to steal politically sensitive information.

(AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin). A man walks past the building of the Russian military intelligence service in Moscow, Russia, Saturday, July 14, 2018. U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday scolded the Obama administration for not responding aggressively e...

(AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin). A man walks past the building of the Russian military intelligence service in Moscow, Russia, Saturday, July 14, 2018. U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday scolded the Obama administration for not responding aggressively e...

(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite). Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., criticizes President Donald Trump's performance during his side-by-side news conference with Russia's Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, as he speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in...

(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite). Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., criticizes President Donald Trump's performance during his side-by-side news conference with Russia's Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, as he speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in...

Standing alongside Putin, Trump steered clear of any confrontation with the Russian, going so far as to question American intelligence and last week's federal indictments that accused 12 Russians of hacking into Democratic email accounts to hurt Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Standing alongside Putin, Trump steered clear of any confrontation with the Russian, going so far as to question American intelligence and last week's federal indictments that accused 12 Russians of hacking into Democratic email accounts to hurt Hillary Clinton in 2016.

(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais). U.S. President Donald Trump speaks with Russian President Vladimir Putin during a press conference after their meeting at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland, Monday, July 16, 2018.

(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais). U.S. President Donald Trump speaks with Russian President Vladimir Putin during a press conference after their meeting at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland, Monday, July 16, 2018.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States is open to holding direct talks with the Taliban to encourage negotiations between the militant group and the Afghan government to end 17 years of war, U.S. officials said.

That marks a tactical shift by the Trump administration, which has previously only appeared willing to participate in discussions with the Taliban if those talks also involve the Afghan government. The U.S. officials said Monday that Afghan-to-Afghan negotiation remains the goal of any engagement with the militants.

The officials were not authorized to speak to media and requested anonymity.

The Taliban have long refused direct talks with the Afghan government, demanding instead to negotiate with Washington. The militants have persisted in that stance despite Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's unilateral extension of a holiday cease-fire last month in hopes of encouraging the militants to come to the bargaining table. With the Taliban continuing to mount deadly attacks, Ghani ordered government forces to resume military operations this month.

The unprecedented, three-day cease-fire by both sides had offered a rare glimpse of peace for Afghans during which militants fraternized with security force members.

A Taliban official in the small Gulf Arab nation of Qatar told The Associated Press on Monday that no American official or intermediary has been in touch with them to start direct talks, and it had only heard of it in the media. The administration's willingness to hold direct talks with the Taliban was first reported by The New York Times on Sunday.

The Taliban official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because he was authorized to speak to journalists, said, "We wait for them to officially inform us." But he added that if the U.S. is interested in talks, it should take steps to get Taliban leaders off a sanctions blacklist and support the formal opening of the Taliban office in Qatar where its political representatives reside. The official reiterated the Taliban's call for the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan.

Asked if the U.S. was willing to hold direct talks with the Taliban, the State Department said Monday, the United States "is exploring all avenues to advance a peace process in close consultation with the Afghan government."

The department added that "any negotiations over the political future of Afghanistan will be between the Taliban and Afghan government."

Last August, President Donald Trump launched an Afghanistan strategy that centered on boosting the capabilities of Afghan security forces and aiming - with help from Pakistan and other interested nations - to compel the militants to negotiate. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Afghanistan last week to reinforce its support for talks.

"The United States will support, facilitate, and participate in these peace discussions, but peace must be decided by the Afghans and settled among them. We expect that these peace talks will include a discussion of the role of international actors and forces," Pompeo said after meeting Ghani in Kabul on July 9.

The U.S. invaded Afghanistan following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, and ousted the Taliban government that had hosted al-Qaida. It has about 15,000 troops in Afghanistan, mostly for training government forces.

The conflict appears stalemated, with insurgents controlling or contesting more than 40 percent of the country. The U.N. mission in Afghanistan said Sunday that 1,692 civilians were killed in violence in the first six months of this year, the highest six-month death toll since the systematic documentation of civilian casualties started in 2009.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Russia and Tajikistan begin joint military exercises near the Afghan–Tajik border to deter potential Taliban attacks.