The Obama administration is continuing to pursue peace talks with the Taliban, even as the Taliban openly rejects the goals of those talks.

“With respect to talking to the Taliban, the reality is we never have the luxury of negotiating for peace with our friends,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters on Wednesday. “If you’re sitting across a table discussing a peaceful resolution to a conflict, you are sitting across from people who, by definition, you don’t agree with, and who you may previously have been across a battlefield from.”