Taliban says ‘way too early’ to speak of resuming talks with US after Trump’s statement

The Taliban said on Friday it was “way too early” to speak of resuming direct talks with Washington. The statement came a day after US President Donald Trump said during a surprise visit to Afghanistan that the US was again meeting with the militants.

“It is way too early to talk about the resumption of talks for now. We will give our official reaction later,” the group’s official spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid, told AFP in a WhatsApp message.

However, Mujahid was quoted by Reuters on Friday as saying that the insurgent group was “ready to restart the talks,” which collapsed in September after Trump called them off. “Our stance is still the same. If peace talks start, they will be resumed from the stage where they'd stopped,” Mujahid said, according to the report.

It added that Taliban leaders say the group has been holding meetings with senior US officials in Doha, Qatar, since last weekend and formal peace talks could soon be resumed.