According to a report by Reuters, pressure is mounting on the Taliban to respond to President Ashraf Ghani's offer for peace talks, as demand grows for an end to the 17 year-long war in Afghanistan. One of the State Department's top officials dealing with Afghanistan, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia, Alice Wells, told reporters during a visit to Kabul, “Increasingly, I think it’s becoming unacceptable for the Taliban not to negotiate.