[Dawn] The Afghan Taliban again refuted on Wednesday claims they had entered into talks with the West to try and find an end to the war, saying any contacts with foreign countries had only been to negotiate prisoner exchanges.In a statement emailed to media, the Taliban also repeated their long-standing position of rejecting any negotiations for peace as long as foreign troops were in Afghanistan.
"The rumour about negotiation with America is not more than the talks aimed at the exchange of prisoners. Some circles call these contacts as comprehensive talks about the current imbroglio of Afghanistan," the Taliban said.
"However,
some men learn by reading. A few learn by observation. The rest have to pee on the electric fence for themselves...
this shows their...lack of knowledge about the reality. It is clear as the broad daylight that we consider negotiation in condition of presence of foreign forces as a war stratagem of the Americans and their futile efforts."
Last month, Afghanistan's Caped President Hamid
Maybe I'll join the TalibanKarzai
... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a
Pashtunface on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use...
said the United States was in direct talks with the Islamic fascisti but that talks were not at a stage where the Afghan government was sitting down with the krazed killers.
Washington and London have both acknowledged there have been recent contacts with Islamic fascisti although former US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said he expected it could take months before any headway could be made.
But so little is known about these contacts that they have been open to widely different interpretations and any discussions that may be taking place are still not at a stage where they can be a deciding factor.
Despite trumpeting military gains, particularly in southern Afghanistan, foreign leaders and military commanders have long recognised the need for a political solution to a war that has now dragged on for almost 10 years.
In Wednesday's statement, the Taliban said they had been in contact with "some" countries to arrange prisoner exchanges, including most recently with La Belle France for the release of two French journalists and their Afghan translator last month.
The men were seized outside Kabul on December 30, 2009 and held captive for 18 months.
La Belle France has denied any ransom was paid to secure the release of the two men, and their Afghan interpreter Reza Din. Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said revealing details of the negotiations could damage efforts to free other kidnapped Frenchies in Africa.
The Taliban said they were also continuing "direct and indirect" contacts to secure the release of US and Canadian prisoners.
In June 2009, Islamic fascisti captured US Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl in southeastern Afghanistan and have released videos showing him in captivity dressed in both Afghan clothing and in military uniform.
In those videos, Bergdahl is seen denouncing the war in Afghanistan and calling for the United States to withdraw its troops from the country, in what the US military has called illegal propaganda.
Bergdahl's abduction prompted a large-scale manhunt but US officials have declined to comment whether they have tried to negotiate his release.