Claims Taliban ready to negotiate

TALIBAN officials have engaged in periodic, discreet contacts with Afghan and US officials for months but are unwilling to move to formal peace negotiations until the US agrees to a timetable for the withdrawal of all foreign troops, according to a Pakistani intelligence official and members of a newly formed Afghan peace council.

The White House said yesterday that President Barack Obama supports attempts by the Afghan government to open peace talks with Taliban leaders, but still wants the insurgents to renounce violence and their support of al-Qaida.

However, press secretary Robert Gibbs said the US was not taking part in any such talks. “This is about Afghanistan,” he said. “It has to be done by the Afghans.”

The Washington Post reported secret talks aimed at ending the war in Afghanistan have begun between representatives of the Taliban and the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

The Post quoted Afghan and Arab sources as saying they believe for the first time that Taliban representatives are authorised to speak for the Quetta Shura, the Afghan Taliban command council based in Pakistan, and its leader Mullah Mohammad Omar.

However, other Pakistanis and Afghans familiar with the process insist all contacts have been limited to indirect message exchanges, using mediators who include former Taliban members.

Hamid Gul, the former head of Pakistan’s main intelligence service who has had long-time ties to the Taliban, said the insurgents have given three preconditions for formal negotiations – a timetable for a NATO withdrawal, release of all Taliban prisoners and a deal to drop the terrorist label which the religious movement was given after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the US.

The Taliban has repeatedly denied any such contacts, saying it will not talk peace so long as US and NATO troops are in the country.