© Radio Liberty (RFE/RL)Army General John Nicholson
U.S. Army General John Nicholson made the remarks on May 30, citing "offstage" contacts involving what he described as mid- and high-level Taliban leaders.
"A number of channels of dialogue have opened up between the various stakeholders in the peace process," Nicholson said.
Nicholson said he could not provide the names of specific Taliban members because the contacts are being pursued confidentially to improve the chances of advancing to actual peace talks.
"What you're seeing right now is a lot of the diplomatic activity and dialogue is occurring off the stage, and it's occurring at multiple levels," Nicholson said.
"You see mid-level, senior-level Taliban leaders engaging with Afghans," he said, adding that unspecified international organizations, foreign governments, and other interested parties also are involved.
Inside the Taliban, Nicholson said, there is a "robust dialogue" under way about ending the war.
He also said there are "many points of intersection" between Taliban and Afghan proposals for pursuing peace.
U.S. officials have spoken positively about the prospects for peace many times during the course of the 17-year war in Afghanistan, only to be disappointed.
Comment: This comes along with rumors that Nicholson is soon to be replaced by Army Lieutenant General Scott Miller. Is Nicholson's statement preparing the ground for a change in focus by Miller? Or is Nicholson just engaging in a little bit of last-minute truth-telling? We'll see. But the Taliban has expressed willingness to negotiate for years. The U.S. hasn't been interested. Trump took office advocating for withdrawal from Afghanistan - but reversed his position and led a more aggressive war with Nicholson at the helm. So Trump has the chance now of saying, "We tried, it didn't work, now I'm going to fulfill my campaign promise." Again, we'll see.