Afghan president admits talking to the Taliban

Feb 16, 2012, 8:08 GMT

Kabul - Afghan President Hamid Karzai has admitted in a newspaper interview published Thursday that his government has been talking to the Taliban along with the United States.

'There have been contacts between the US government and the Taliban, there have been contacts between the Afghan government and the Taliban, and there have been some contacts that we have made, all of us together, including the Taliban, in a third location,' Karzai told the Wall Street Journal.

Last month, Taliban said they were opening an office in the Gulf state of Qatar to hold talks with the international community in a US-led effort.

Karzai immediately recalled his ambassador to Qatar. He was concerned that the Afghans would be sidelined in the talks.

Later, he said he agreed to the Taliban office in Qatar, even though he would prefer it to be in Saudi Arabia or Turkey.

'There was for a year forms of contact going on between the Taliban and US government officials, which we knew about, which we were informed about, which we allowed to happen, with a view that at a certain time the Taliban and the Afghan government will also be talking,' Karzai told the newspaper.

'But when the issue of the (Taliban) office came and the manner in which it was handled, we felt that we had a different opinion, and that opinion was conveyed clearly to the US government when we were in Bonn for the Bonn conference,' he said.

'Subsequently to that the US government, having noticed our view on that, began to negotiate with us ... We have now reached an agreement,' Karzai was quoted as saying.

The Taliban have so far categorically denied any intention to talk with Karzai's administration in Kabul, which the insurgents accuse of being a 'puppet' of its foreign allies.

Karzai dismissed the denial, saying Afghanistan is talking to the Taliban including 'to the senior-most of them.'

'Contacts at different levels, official, personal, all sorts. We keep hearing in the press from time to time that the Taliban don't want to talk to us, but that's someone making a statement,' he said.

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