While saying it was an "end goal" of the peace process between the Afghan and Taliban governments, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Tuesday that a public disassociation of al-Qaeda by the Taliban was not a pre-condition for negotiations.
REPORTER: Just to be clear on Jill's point, the Taliban are not required to disown, disavow or disassociate themselves publicly with al-Qaeda?
PSAKI: That is a part of the end goal of the process.
REPORTER: Right. But to begin the process, to talk with them, they don't have to do that. This is not a pre-condition for them.
PSAKI: Correct.
The Taliban announced Tuesday it would sit down for peace talks with U.S. and Afghanistan officials.