Speaking at his daily press briefing in Washington, U.S State Department spokesman John Kirby said nothing has changed their view that they support an Afghan-led reconciliation process.

This came in answer to a question on Taliban’s recent call for direct talks with the U.S.

Kirby said: "We believe that's the right approach. We've always believed that that's the right approach."

"President (Ashraf) Ghani, more importantly, also believes in the criticality of that approach, and that's where our support will go to," he added.

This comes after the Taliban recently issued new demands for ending its insurgency, including direct talks with the United States.

They also demanded their office in Qatar be recognized and that the names of its members be removed from the UN blacklist.

Earlier this month, Sohail Shaheen, spokesman for the Taliban’s Qatar office, said that the presence of US-led foreign soldiers in the country was the “root cause” of the ongoing turmoil in the war-hit nation.
 
“The foreign occupation forces are undermining the country’s sovereignty and freedom of its politics as well as the government,” he said.

“That is why there is a need for America and its allies to come to the table for direct talks with the Islamic Emirate (the Taliban) for negotiating an end to the occupation,” he added said.

The National Unity Government (NUG) under Ghani and his Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Abdullah Abdullah made new attempts to persuade the group to return to the peace table. But the Taliban, as in the past, responded to government’s peace offer with suicide attacks and explosions in major Afghan towns and the talks never proved successful.