KABUL (Reuters) - Representatives of the Afghan Taliban have met in Islamabad over the past two days in Islamabad, the first such meeting since US President Donald Trump canceled talks with the group over an attack that killed Americans, US media reported on Monday.
The Associated Press quoted an unnamed Taliban official as saying that the meeting took place on Friday, which two sources confirmed to Reuters.
A Pakistani government official said Taliban officials had a meeting with US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, stressing that his country had played a big dollar to convince them of the importance of the peace process.
The US Embassy in Islamabad and the State Department in Washington declined to comment on whether a meeting had been held.
Khalilzad spent "several days" in Islamabad this week for consultations with Pakistani authorities, a Foreign Office spokesman said, adding that meetings of the US envoy in Islamabad did not represent an resumption of the Afghan peace process.
Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, did not confirm or deny the meeting, adding that the group's delegation was still in Islamabad for meetings.
A Pakistani official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, was quoted as saying on Saturday that the US envoy and Taliban representatives would stay in Islamabad until Sunday.
It also quoted a Taliban source that Pakistan was trying to persuade the Taliban to cease fire, one of the main concerns that prompted the US president to withdraw from peace talks.
Khalilzad has been shuttling to and from the Pakistani capital since Trump asked in December to help push the Taliban to the negotiating table.
The United States and Afghanistan accuse Islamabad of supporting Taliban factions, a charge Pakistan denies.
The Taliban delegation, led by the group's co-founder, is headed by the head of the political wing Mullah Abdul Ghani Prader, who was held in Pakistan for eight years before being released in 2018 to facilitate the peace process in Afghanistan.
On September 7, Trump announced a halt to negotiations with the Taliban, which has made significant progress recently during a series of rounds in the Qatari capital Doha, after an attack in Afghanistan that caused American casualties.