President Donald Trump said he had a "very good" conversation with top Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar and discussed progress towards achieving peace in Afghanistan, the first known call between an American president and the insurgent group.
The historic telephonic conversation, which the Taliban said lasted more than half an hour, took place a day after the Taliban ended the partial truce amidst renewed violence in the war-torn country,
raising doubt over the intra-Afghan negotiations that are scheduled to begin on March 10.
The US also launched an air strike against the Taliban militants to defend the Afghan forces on Wednesday.
President Trump "emphasised the need to continue the reduction in violence, which made possible the signing of the historic United States-Taliban agreement on February 29," the White House said in a readout of the telephonic conversation on Tuesday.
The president stated that the US stands ready to continue its support for the Afghan people as they pursue a peace settlement, it said.
"He (Trump) also urged the Taliban to participate in intra-Afghan negotiations with representatives of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, as well as other Afghans, with the goal of ending more than 40 years of war," the White House said.
Trump confirmed the call as he left the White House on Tuesday, telling reporters he "had a very good talk with the leader of the Taliban."
"I spoke to the leader of the Taliban today, we had a good conversation, we have agreed there is no violence, don't want violence. We will see what happens. They're dealing with Afghanistan but we will see what happens," he said.
"The relationship is very good that I have with the mullah," Trump added in later comments at the National Institutes of Health. "They want to cease the violence, they'd like to cease violence also."
After 18 years of war, the US and the Taliban signed the peace deal in Doha on Saturday to facilitate intra-Afghan dialogue in Oslo this month and the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Afghanistan in 14 months.
The signing of the deal came after the completion of a week-long "reduction in violence" in Afghanistan. Before the "reduction" agreement there were on average more than 100 attacks a day.
In Doha in the presence of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Baradar had signed the agreement with the US Special US Representative for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad had signed the agreement on behalf of the United States.
The intra-Afghan negotiations are due to begin on March 10, according to the US-Taliban deal, but a dispute over prisoner swap has raised questions.
The agreement includes a commitment for the Taliban to release up to 1,000 prisoners and for the Afghan government to free around 5,000 insurgent captives -- something the militants have cited as a prerequisite for talks. However, President Ashraf Ghani has refused to do it before the negotiations begin.
Under the US-Taliban pact signed in Doha, the US has agreed to reduce its troops in Afghanistan from 13,000 to 8,600 in the next 130 days and withdraw all its soldiers in 14 months.
President Trump has previously said that he would be "meeting personally with Taliban leaders in the not too distant future" following the signing of the Doha agreement.
Taliban spokesperson Muhammad Suhail Shaheen said the group's leader could meet Trump in the coming days or weeks.
He said the Taliban had accepted Trump's invitation for talks in the US and that the US President had set the agenda for the meeting.
"Of course this will be shared with us through proper channel and we will have own opinion about that. And then it will take place," Shaheen was quoted as saying by CNN.
In September, Trump called off a secret peace negotiations with the Taliban after the militants admitted they were behind an attack that killed a US soldier. The US president was then set to meet Afghan President Ghani and senior Taliban leaders at his Camp David retreat.
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