S. Arabia brokering Kabul-Taliban talks: ‘Militia severs ties with Al Qaeda’
By Our Special Correspondent
LONDON, Oct 6: King Abdullah of **Saudi Arabia recently hosted talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban, **CNN’s Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson reported on Monday ***quoting a source.
*** The CNN online alert said the historic four-day meeting took place during the last week of September in Makkah, according to the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the negotiations.
King Abdullah broke the fast with a 17-member Afghan delegation — an act intended to show his commitment to ending the conflict. Taliban leader Mullah Omar was not present, the source said.
It marks a significant departure by the Saudi leadership to take a direct role in Afghanistan, hosting some delegates who have until recently been their enemies.
**In the past, Saudi Arabia has generally dealt with Afghanistan through Pakistan.
** The CNN correspondent said the desert kingdom’s current foray marks a significant shift and appears to recognise the political weakness of Pakistan and the need to stem the growth of Al Qaeda.
The current round of talks is anticipated to be a first step in a long process. According to the source close to the talks, it has taken two years of behind-the-scenes meetings to get to this point.
The talks took place between Sept 24 and 27 and involved 11 Taliban delegates, two Afghan government officials, a representative of former mujahideen commander and US foe Gulbadin Hekmatyar, and three others.
It was the first such meeting aimed at finding a negotiated settlement to the Afghan conflict and for the first time, all parties were able to discuss their positions and objectives openly and transparently, the source said.
Saudi Arabia was one of only three countries that recognised the Taliban leadership during its rule over Afghanistan in the 1990s, but that relationship was severed over Mullah Omar’s refusal to hand over Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
While Mullah Omar was not present at the Makkah talks, the source said the Taliban leader had made it clear he was no longer allied with Al Qaeda — a position that has never been publicly stated but emerged at the talks. It confirms what another source with an intimate knowledge of the Taliban and Mullah Omar has told CNN in the past.
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“They invited some people for this. The list included me, (former Taliban foreign minister Wakil Ahmad) Mutawakil, some from the Taliban, some from Hekmatyar, some from the government.”
“We didn’t discuss any issue of Afghanistan with” King Abdullah, he said.
Mr Zaeef, who spent almost four years in the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay, said there were no “official” representatives from the Taliban or Hekmatyar’s group, meaning no one authorised to carry out peace talks.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s government has long encouraged militants to lay down arms and accept the country’s constitution, but the Taliban leadership has largely rebuffed repeated overtures from Afghan officials aimed at ending the country’s six-year conflict.
An Afghan opposition leader, former president Burhanuddin Rabbani, had told the AP earlier this year that the country’s political leaders had been meeting Taliban and other anti-government groups in hopes of negotiating peace. He said some Taliban were willing to negotiate, but others were opposed.
Not sure if this news article is really “true” even if it is coming out of CNN but who knows. So According to this article Saudi/Afghan/Taliban talk (or coming to negotiations) has been going for 2 years!!!
Lots of info here and then US supports Taliban return to power -DAWN - Top Stories; October 07, 2008
US supports Taliban return to power
By Anwar Iqbal
WASHINGTON, Oct 6: The United States said on Monday it’s “very supportive” of an Afghan reconciliation effort that could bring the Taliban back into the government in Kabul after severing their ties with Al Qaeda.
A CNN report claimed that the Taliban had already agreed to dump Al Qaeda, a militant group the United States blames for sponsoring the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.
“We’re very supportive of an Afghan reconciliation programme,” US State Department’s deputy spokesman Robert Wood told a briefing in Washington.
So after years of bombing Afghanistan US says it supports Taliban returning to power :rotfl: Why do they have to make an a$$ out of themselves? What was the purpose of war again? Oh yeah, OBL and AlQaida… and where are they? Oh yeah, they have relocated to Pakistan (conveniently enough so next war can be waged towards east).
You guys buy too much into the propaganda doled out in media outlets.