Afghan officials talk with Taliban representatives

KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan officials are holding talks with Taliban representatives in their first official face-to-face discussions, which the Afghan president said Tuesday are aimed at starting fullfledged negotiations.

The talks in an unannounced location in Islamabad come after repeated informal meetings between Taliban and government representatives, most recently hosted by Qatar and Norway. But the new talks are the first formally acknowledged by the Afghan government. That and the semipublic nature of the talks suggest possible progress after years of frustration in trying to bring the two sides together.

Pakistan’s prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, called the holding of the talks “a major breakthrough” in comments recorded for Pakistani TV from the Norwegian capital of Oslo, where he is on a three-day visit.

He said the overtness of the meeting is a positive development. “I hope there will be a positive outcome which will certainly be very helpful for peace and stability in Afghanistan,” he said.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has made it a priority to find a peace settlement, even as fighting has continued in the war against the insurgency waged by the Taliban since their ouster in the 2001 U.S.-led invasion. Afghan forces are now bearing the brunt of the insurgency after the U.S. and NATO ended their combat role in the country at the start of the year, with Washington cutting its troop presence.

Previous efforts to start a dialogue stalled, however, largely due the lack of trust and confidence between the two sides.

Ghani has enlisted the support of regional countries believed to protect, fund and arm the Taliban, including Pakistan, which is pressuring the insurgents to open a channel for peace negotiations, officials and diplomats said. Informal talks in Qatar in May ended on a hopeful note, with the Taliban expressing flexibility on some issues.

Ghani’s office announced Tuesday that a delegation from the government’s High Peace Council was traveling to Islamabad to hold the talks.