 [Pak Daily Times] The Afghan Taliban said on Wednesday that they were not talking to President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai's government; rejecting recent media reports the two sides were in secret negotiations to end a war now in its 10th year.
That could well be a true statement. Maybe Hamid is talking to the Talibs and the Talibs aren't talking back to him.
| Maybe some of the Talibs are talking and others aren't, and maybe they aren't telling each other about it. These are not naturally honest people. |
Taliban front man Zabihullah Mujahid also repeated a long-standing demand for foreign forces to leave the country, saying reports of peace talks when troops were still battling forces of Evil on the ground would only undermine the credibility of the government and its foreign backers. "If the enemy insists on continuation of the war in the battlefields but on the other hand merely disseminates propaganda and contradictory claims about high-level talks, then it will only contribute first and foremost to the enemy's already losing credibility," he added. The Washington Post reported earlier this month that representatives of the Taliban and Karzai's government had started secret talks, citing unnamed Afghan and Arab sources. The sources were quoted as saying they believe the Taliban representatives were authorised to speak for the Afghan Taliban organisation. |