Bring Taliban to negotiating table, US tells Pakistan

The Trump administration has once again asked Pakistan to crack down on all insurgent groups without any discrimination.
Pentagon spokesman Lt Col Koné Faulkner renewed the call a day before the visit of the US secretary of State to Islamabad for talks with the new Pakistani government.
Mike Pompeo is expected to meet Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and other government leaders during his visit to Pakistan.
In a statement, the Pentagon spokesman said: “We continue to press Pakistan to indiscriminately target all terrorist groups, including the Haqqani network.
“We also continue to call on Pakistan to arrest, expel or bring the Taliban leadership to the negotiating table,” the spokesman added.
According to Dawn News, the US definition of terrorist groups includes Lashkar-e-Taiba, which largely focuses on India, not Afghanistan.
The emphasis on forcing the Taliban to join the peace process confirms the general perception in Washington that President Donald Trump wants stability in Afghanistan.