WASHINGTON: The United States said Wednesday it has taken no decision to release prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay to boost reconciliation talks with the Taliban.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland also said Washington is "prepared to support" a proposed overseas Taliban office backing an Afghan-led reconciliation process provided it meets international standards.
She said the United States and Afghanistan seek true reconciliation based on the Taliban's renouncing violence, ending its support for Al-Qaeda and embracing the Afghan constitution, which enshrines human rights.
"With regard to Guantanamo... no decisions have been made with regard to any releases," Nuland said.
Earlier Wednesday, the government of Afghanistan gave its blessing to talks between Taliban insurgents and the United States, and also to the opening of an office for the militants in Qatar.
The Taliban announced on Tuesday that they had come to an "initial agreement with relevant sides including Qatar" to set up their first representative office outside Afghanistan.
The move is seen as a precursor to talks to end the bloody war between the Taliban and the US-backed government of President Hamid Karzai.
It is the first time the insurgent group has publicly raised the prospect of a negotiated peace after more than 10 years of fighting, always previously insisting they would not talk until all foreign troops had left Afghan soil.
One of their demands would be for a prisoner exchange to include the release of Taliban inmates from the US-run detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba the Taliban said.
Asked if Afghanistan had formally requested the release of such prisoners, Nuland replied: "We're not today, we're not in the future going to get into the details of these Afghan-led discussions. That's not productive to the process."
The United States has admitted having had exploratory talks with the Taliban and the Taliban-related Haqqani network.
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