US says Pakistan too has stake in Afghan-Taliban peace talks outcome

As Afghanistan inches closer to initiating peace talks with Afghan Taliban, the US State Department has lauded Pakistan's role in the process and said that Islamabad too has a stake in the outcome.

Spokesperson Jen Psaki said that the US had long urged Pakistan to support President Ashraf Ghani's peace talks. She added that Washington continued to back "an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned reconciliation process" whereby the Taliban and Afghanistan engaged in talks to resolve the conflict, reported the Dawn.

Afghanistan's chief executive Abdullah Abdullah had earlier told the press on Monday that reconciliatory talks with Taliban would begin in the "near future".

Ghani, on the other hand, had assured over the weekend that peace was closer now than at any time since the war began more than 13 years ago. Both the leaders also said that Pakistan was playing a positive role in their efforts to end the conflict and was encouraging Taliban leaders to talk to Kabul.