News analysis: Sharif-Obama call for direct Afghan talks could mount pressure on Taliban

U.S. President Barack Obama and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif have pressed the Afghan Taliban to enter into direct talks with the government that is widely seen as the best option to find out a solution to end the imposed war in Afghanistan.

Prime Minister Sharif, who is visiting the United States, and President Obama made the call during their talks at the White House on Thursday, which also focused on Afghanistan.

A joint statement issued after the meeting said both leaders "called on Taliban leaders to enter into direct talks with Kabul and work toward a sustainable peace settlement."

The leaders "reaffirmed their commitment to the Afghan-led and Afghan­-owned peace and reconciliation process as the surest way to end violence and bring lasting stability to Afghanistan and the region," said the joint statement.

This is the first time that Pakistan and the United States have jointly called on the Taliban to engage in "direct talks with Kabul," said Mushahid Hussain, chairman of the Senate Defense Committee.

Hussain told Xinhua on Saturday that the U.S. has accepted the reality that the military option cannot solve the Afghan issue, saying that Washington has recognized the Taliban as the stakeholder in the negotiated settlement and also endorsed Pakistan's role in the peace process.

The Pak-U.S. joint statement is significant as both leaders have underscored the need for a negotiated settlement because the military option over the past 15 years has failed. The insurgency has spread across Afghanistan and the Taliban have taken their war to the relatively safe northern parts of the country, which is also a matter of serious concerns for Central Asian states and Russia.

The Taliban are unwilling to join the intra-Afghan dialogue at the this stage and insist they want to hold talks with the United States first to secure timing for the complete withdrawal of U.S.-led foreign troops, lifting an international ban on their top leaders and to free the remaining leaders in American custody.

The Taliban leaders have long been saying they would hold talks with Afghans after they reach a deal on ending the 15-year-old invasion by the U.S. and its NATO allies.

Pakistan's efforts to push for reconciliation in Afghanistan also received a major boost when President Obama threw weight behind the initiative. Pakistan had hosted the first ever direct talks in 14 years between representatives of the Afghan government and the Taliban on July 7.

President Obama "commended Pakistan for hosting and facilitating the first public talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban in July 2015 and highlighted the opportunity presented by Pakistan's willingness to facilitate a reconciliation process that would help end insurgent violence in Afghanistan," the joint statement said.

The Pakistan-brokered peace talks faced a deadlock when the Afghan intelligence agency revealed the death of the Taliban supreme leader, Mullah Omar, which shifted the focus of the Taliban to the election of a new chief.

In August, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani put a stop on Pakistan's help for talks when the Taliban launched a series of deadly attacks in Kabul and other parts of the country under their new leader Mullah Akhtar Mansoor.

According to analysts, the quest of President Obama and Prime Minister Sharif for direct talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government would encourage the leadership in Kabul to come up with its own plan about how to revive the stalled peace negotiations.

The support of Pakistan and the U.S. for the Afghan-led process is available to facilitate the process and Kabul should not miss this opportunity, analysts argued. Enditem