(Last Updated On: April 21, 2021) The US State Department’s spokesman Ned Price said on Tuesday night that the Istanbul Conference was never meant to replace the Doha talks but rather it was part of a broader diplomatic effort to secure a political settlement. Addressing a press conference, Price said the Doha talks “is an effort that continues to be ongoing and it’s an effort where we will continue to invest our resources, our political heft, knowing again that only through diplomacy, only through a political settlement, an Afghan-owned, Afghan-led process, will we be able to help support bringing peace, stability, and security to the people of Afghanistan.”