WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. State Department said on Monday that it is too early to say how Afghan peace talks are going, but the United States believes this is a moment when progress is possible.
State Department spokesman Ned Price also told a regular news briefing that the U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, would be based in Doha for some time.
“We have continued to encourage all sides to take part constructively and with a degree of alacrity, knowing that this is a moment in time where progress is possible,” Price said. “We want to do everything we can to facilitate that progress, to support dialogue, the inter-Afghan dialogue between the various parties. That’s precisely why we’re there.”
(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk, Simon Lewis and David Brunnstrom; Editing by Leslie Adler)
