Pakistan confirms will host peace talks between US and Taliban: minister

ISLAMABAD: The next round of peace talks between the Taliban and the United States will be held in Pakistan as part of efforts to seek a political settlement of the 17-year Afghan war, the Pakistan’s information minister confirmed on Thursday.

Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry gave no further details.

In Washington, a State Department spokesperson said in an email that the United States had not received any formal invitation to talks in Islamabad, however, and that there was “no meeting to announce at this time.”

A Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid had said on Wednesday that their negotiators would meet their US counterparts on Feb 18 in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad.

The talks would come a week ahead of previously scheduled negotiations between the two sides in Qatar on Feb 25. Mujahid said in a statement that the Qatar talks would still take place as scheduled.

Both the Taliban and the United States hailed progress after the end of the last round of negotiations in Qatar last month.