Senior administration official-1: Today is an important day for our ongoing effort in Afghanistan for two purposes. In Bagram, last year, President Barack Obama laid out a strategy for Afghanistan and how we could responsibly and successfully end the war there that had five pillars. And two key pillars of that strategy were the ongoing transition of security responsibility to the Afghans and the pursuit of a political process that allows Afghans to reconcile with one another after so many years of war.
Earlier today, there was an important milestone on the security transition as we fulfiled the milestone that was agreed to at the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) summit in Chicago to transition responsibility for security to an Afghan lead across the country so that Afghan National Security Forces are in the lead for the responsibility of security, with our full support, of course. And this is a key milestone on the way to the complete transition of responsibility for security to Afghans by the end of next year.
At the same time, we also want to discuss the opening of a Taliban office in Doha for the purpose of negotiations with the Afghan government in pursuit of reconciliation. My colleague will walk you through some of the details of this. I'll just provide some opening context from the President. He has personally been involved in working through this process with President Karzai of Afghanistan since he was in Bagram. And they have spoken frequently about how to move forward with an Afghan-owned and Afghan-led reconciliation process that provides an opportunity for there to be discussions among Afghans and a pursuit of a peaceful resolution of differences among some of the parties within Afghanistan... The President has been involved with the Emir of Qatar in discussions about the support that they could provide to this reconciliation process...
Here at the G8, the President was able to brief his fellow G8 leaders on this development last night at the leaders working dinner and received a positive response. I think there's significant international support for the notion of a reconciliation process even with all the attendant difficulties. So, the President was able to update his fellow leaders on this last night as a key part of the discussions on Afghanistan. With that, I'll turn it over to my colleague to give you some context on what's taking place.
Senior administration official-2: Okay, thank you. So later today in Doha, the Taliban will release a statement that says two things: First, that they oppose the use of Afghan soil to threaten other countries; and second, that they support an Afghan peace process. These are two statements which we've long called for and together, they fulfil the requirements for the Taliban to open an office, a political office, in Doha for the purposes of negotiation with the Afghan government.
Accordingly, the Qatari government today will issue a statement announcing the opening of the office in Doha. And we welcome this. These statements represent an important first step towards reconciliation - a process that, after 30 years of armed conflict in Afghanistan, will certainly promise to be complex, long and messy, but nonetheless, this is an important first step.
The outcome of this process marks that the Taliban and other insurgent groups meet three end conditions: First, that they break ties with al-Qaeda; that they end the violence; and that they accept Afghanistan's Constitution, including its protections for women and minorities. Further, recognising that the opening of the office later today is but one milestone on the path toward peace, we call on the Afghan government and the Taliban to begin direct negotiations soon.
We commend Karzai and the Afghan government for their determination to end the conflict and build a future of security, peace, and prosperity for the Afghan people...
The other thing I would add is that as we pursue this path to peace with this important first step today, our core goal in Afghanistan is always primary, and that is to defeat al-Qaeda and ensure that Afghanistan can never again be a safe haven for international terrorism... We have long said this conflict will likely not be won on the battlefield, and that is why we support the opening of this office. But neither do we plan to let up in our fight against international terrorism in Afghanistan, or in our support to Afghan forces who, as my colleague mentioned, today in Kabul, assumed the lead for operations throughout the country. Our military and diplomatic efforts continue to be mutually reinforcing.
And we're happy to take your questions, but first, my colleague has some opening comments...
Senior administration official-1: First of all, there are Dick Holbrooke and Marc Grossman, who significantly advanced this process, who worked very hard to initiate such a peace process. Karzai, of course, has embraced the concept and desire for peace talks with the Taliban many years before the US government itself embraced the concept. It was Secretary Hilary Clinton in early 2011 in a speech to the Asia Society, as I recall, that first announced the administration's support for direct negotiations with the Taliban.
There's been a lot of personal diplomacy since then. We've already heard about the efforts that President Obama has made. Secretary John Kerry has similarly been personally and heavily involved in this since his entering office as Secretary of State.
And finally, there are a number of governments that contributed significantly over the period since 2011 in bringing about this outcome. Those governments include Germany, Norway, the UK and, of course, the government of Qatar, who has agreed to actually host these talks and work closely with us in defining the purpose of the talks and arrangements for them. And finally I'd also note that in recent months, the government of Pakistan has been particularly helpful in urging the other side - that is, the Taliban - to come forward and join in a peace process.
Edited excerpts from a briefing by the US administration in Washington DC on June 18 on its talks with the Afghan Taliban in Doha. Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai broke off the Afghanistan-US Strategic Dialogue within a day of the talks being made public
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