The United States has stepped up direct talks with the Afghan Taliban for a political settlement. A US newspaper reported that the Obama administration was directly engaged in negotiating with Taliban and discarded the option of Pakistan’s mediation by calling it “unnecessary.” A US representative attended three meetings in Qatar and Germany, with a Taliban official considered close to Mullah Muhammad Omar, the report said.
It said that Washington was hoping to make progress in these talks before July, when President BarackObama announces the first troop withdrawals from Afghanistan, part of a process of handing over responsibilities to Afghan forces by 2014.
