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The US administration is holding direct, secret talks with senior Taliban leaders in Afghanistan as part of an effort to forge a political settlement with the group, a report says.
According to the report by The New Yorker magazine on Saturday, the administration of US President Barak Obama has entered into direct and secret negotiations in order "to assess which figures in the Taliban's leadership, if any, might be willing to engage in formal Afghan peace negotiations, and under what conditions."
The report comes a day after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated that only a political solution will end the war in Afghanistan as she expressed hope for splitting off the rank-and-file Taliban from al-Qaeda, a Press TV correspondent reported.
For the first time, Clinton has sent a direct message to the Taliban demanding they lay down their arms and join an Afghan government-led reconciliation, or face utter defeat from US led troops, the correpondent added.
She made the remarks in a speech at the Asia Society in New York on the same day that two US-led foreign soldiers lost their lives in Afghanistan's troubled north after a man wearing an Afghan national army uniform opened fire on the foreign troops in Baghlan province.
Clinton also expounded on US plans to begin the gradual withdrawal of troops in July and complete the drawdown by the end of 2014.
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