Pak welcomes resumption of stalled talks between US and Taliban

Pakistan on Thursday welcomed the announcement of the resumption of the stalled talks between the US and the Taliban.

The US State Department on Wednesday said America will shortly resume talks with the Taliban.

The US negotiator on Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, will head to Qatar to "rejoin talks with the Taliban to discuss steps that could lead to intra-Afghan negotiations and a peaceful settlement of the war, specifically a reduction in violence that leads to a ceasefire," it said in a statement in Washington.

The development came three months after President Donald Trump abruptly called off peace talks with the insurgents in September after a US soldier was killed in a suicide attack in Afghanistan's capital, Kabul.

Pakistan Foreign Office on Thursday said, "We hope that it (the talks) will lead to intra-Afghan negotiations and ultimately to a peaceful and stable Afghanistan. Pakistan encourages all parties to the conflict to engage constructively as a shared responsibility."