Taliban refute holding talks with Afghan govt

Taliban refute holding talks with Afghan govt

Kabul: (Wednesday, February 01, 2012) The Taliban militia in Afghanistan today denied the news about holding talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Saudi Arabia.

Refuting the sources claiming the grounds were set for the negotiations, Taliban stated through their website, “There is no truth in these published reports saying that the delegation of the Islamic Emirate would meet with representatives
of the Karzai government in Saudi Arabia in the near future.”

Feeling left out after the US resumed talks with Taliban in Qatar without having Karzai govt. on board, Afghan officials had suggested their government to engage in negotiations with the militia force leading ten-year long insurgency
in Saudi Arabia.

But until now, neither Taliban nor the Saudi government, who had conditioned involvement in the negotiations with Taliban renouncing al Qaeda, had confirmed to be a part of the process.

With the US, Taliban had agreed to resume talks in Qatar contemplating on the plans to end the decade-long war in the country. Now, they are also planning to open a formal office in Doha. However, talks with US have not begun as
yet either.

Today, the Taliban, through their website, informed that they had not yet reached the negotiations phase with the US and its allies. They said, “Before there are negotiations there should be a trust-building phase, which has not
begun yet.”

A day earlier, an Afghan government spokesman in Kabul had stated, “The Afghan government is very clear in talks, we have always preferred Saudi to Qatar.” He further said, “There is possibility that the talks will take place in
Saudi as well – Qatar is definitely not the only option.”

Commenting on the present situation, which is yet to completely unfold, analysts have lamented on opening up negotiations in a way that would only sow confusion for the partners involved.

Sharing commenting on USA not taking Afghan govt. on board for the talks with Taliban, and the govt. trying to do it at its own, Kate Clark, expert on Afghanistan, said, “When you have all these different players trying to open
up talks with the Taliban it might look to the Taliban like a deliberate ploy, an attempt to divide and rule or to get some advantage.

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Posted by Fayyaz Yaseen on Feb 1 2012. Filed under Latest News, USA, World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry