‘Taliban wants peace negotiations without Pak interference or agenda set by it’
December 23rd, 2010 - 1:52 pm ICT by ANI
London, Dec 23 (ANI): Noted Taliban analyst Ahmed Rashid has claimed that the insurgent group wants peace negotiations without the interference of Pakistan or in accordance to an agenda set by that country.
The Telegraph quoted Rashid as saying that he had recently conducted interviews with five former insurgent leaders, and each of them said: “They want to be free to have negotiations without the interference of Pakistan or according to an agenda set by Pakistan.”
This attitude of Taliban leaders towards Pakistan is viewed as a serious blow to that country, which has developed relations with insurgent groups to retain a stake in any final peace deal, the paper said.
Senior Taliban leaders have said now that their strongholds of Kandahar and Helmand were being hit by teams of special forces, they want to open a base in a neutral, third country like an Arab Gulf state, Turkey or Japan before holding any meaningful peace talks.
Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, the Taliban’s former ambassador to Pakistan, said that meaningful talks were not possible until insurgent leaders had a safe base from which to negotiate.
“Taliban are condemned by the world. They have no address. If I was a Taliban I would choose a country close to Afghanistan but neutral, like the United Arab Emirates, somewhere which is not interested in interfering in Afghanistan, like Pakistan or China,” he added. (ANI)
- US interfering between Afghan government and Taliban: Former Taliban minister - Apr 11, 2010
- Former Taliban member visits UK for secret insurgency-ending talks - Feb 14, 2011
- Pakistan's romance with Afghan Taliban far from over - Feb 17, 2010
- Pak barrier over US, Afghanistan and Taliban peace negotiations to end Afghan war - Mar 17, 2011
- Taliban leader in secret Afghan talks was an impostor: Report - Nov 23, 2010
- US' talks with Taliban's middle ranked leaders may fail to yield desired results - Nov 25, 2009
- Taliban's 'shadow governors' arrested in Pakistan: Army - Feb 18, 2010
- US can negotiate with Mullah Omar: Hillary Clinton - Oct 28, 2011
- Stressed mid-level Taliban reluctant to taking orders from Pak-based leaders - Feb 22, 2011
- Taliban threatens to kill anyone taking up Afghan Govt's peace talks offer - Nov 07, 2010
- Taliban demands removal of leaders names from US, UN terror blacklist - Oct 30, 2010
- Afghan officials slam Pak's 'double game' to derail peace talks with Taliban - Apr 10, 2010
- Afghan Taliban no.2 Baradar "singing like a male canary" : Pak official - Mar 12, 2010
- Ex-US general McChrystal approved peace talks with fake Taliban leader - Nov 27, 2010
- Afghan peace efforts: OIC likely to invite Taliban 'as observers' to March summit - Jan 20, 2011
Tags: ahmed rashid, ambassador, arab gulf, final peace, helmand, insurgent group, insurgent groups, interference, kandahar, meaningful talks, mullah, peace deal, peace negotiations, peace talks, salam, special forces, stake, strongholds, taliban, united arab emirates
