Washington- The US said today that it remains in contact with Afghanistan and Pakistan over reconciliation between Kabul and Afghan Taliban, and Islamabad has a stake in the outcome of the process.

“We certainly remain supportive of an Afghan led and Afghan owned reconciliation process, whereby the Taliban and the Afghan government may engage to resolve the conflict in Afghanistan,” Spokesperson Jen Psaki said at the daily briefing.

She was responding to a question about Afghan chief executive officer Abdullah Abdullah’s statement and media reports that, the Afghan reconciliation talks involving the Taliban may be held soon. However the spokesperson said, the US had no confirmation of when the talks might take place.

“We have long encouraged Pakistan to support President Ashraf Ghani’s reconciliation efforts. We of course remain in support and in contact with President Ghani on these matters and certainly countries like Pakistan who have a stake in the outcome.” Questioned specifically about Pakistan’s role, the spokesperson said that the US has long encouraged them to support the reconciliation process and President Ghani spoke about this.

Regarding reports about Washington’s contacts with the Taliban the spokesperson said that nothing had changed since last week that there had been no direct or indirect US talks with the Taliban.