Taliban deny reports of planned talks with Afghan government

Feb 1, 2012, 15:01 GMT

Kabul - Taliban militants on Wednesday denied reports they were planning direct talks with the Afghan government in Saudi Arabia to end more than ten years of war.

'Media reports claiming negotiations with the Kabul administration are untrue,' Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in an emailed statement, describing such reports as 'baseless.'

An Afghan official told dpa this week the government was seeking peace negotiations with the Taliban, in parallel with US-led exploratory talks with the insurgents.

The Taliban 'is in the middle of a dialogue with the United States and its allies and it has not yet reached the point of negotiations,' Mujahid said.

The Afghan government official said that some Taliban factions had expressed willingness to talk to President Hamid Karzai in Saudi Arabia.

The Taliban said last month they were establishing an office in Qatar to hold exploratory talks with the United States and others. However, the insurgents made clear they would not stop their insurgency and demanded that the US-led military alliance release members held in the military prison at Guantanamo Bay.

'Before the negotiations, a confidence-building period should take place, which has not started yet,' Mujahid said. 'We ask the media not to publish baseless and unconfirmed reports.'

Fearing his government would be sidelined, Karzai recalled his ambassador to Qatar in December in protest at the US and Qatari efforts to talk to the Taliban.

He later accepted the peace overtures and rescinded his opposition to a Taliban liaison office in Qatar.

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