Afghan 'puppet govt' rejected
2008-10-03 14:05
Spin Boldak - A senior Taliban commander on Friday rejected reconciliation with what he called the "puppet" Afghan government, the latest in a series of pronouncements from both sides on potential peace
talks.
While violence has increased to its worst level since 2001,
neither side has managed to break the strategic stalemate and
gain a clear advantage, leading many to call for talks to end
the conflict and bring the Taliban into peaceful politics.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said this week he had asked
the king of Saudi Arabia to mediate in talks with the
insurgents and called on Taliban leader Mullah Omar to return
to his homeland and to make peace.
But Karzai's plea appeared to have fallen on deaf ears and
was rejected by a senior Taliban leader.
"We reject an offer for negotiation by the Afghan's puppet
and slave President Hamid Karzai," Mullah Brother told Reuters
by satellite telephone from an undisclosed location.
He said Karzai had no right to negotiate. "He only says and
does what he is told by America."
The harsh rhetoric against Karzai is a departure from
recent Taliban statements which have taken a softer line on the
pro-Western president who has led Afghanistan since US-led
and Afghan forces toppled the Taliban after the September 11
attacks.
It also appears to reverse a statement by Brother in March
in which he said the Taliban could co-operate with Karzai's
government and called for a negotiated ending to the fighting.
Brother served as a top military commander while the
Taliban were in power in Afghanistan in the late 1990s and is
now one of the movement's senior leaders.
He repeated the Taliban's war aim of fighting till the more
than 70 000 US and Nato troops were driven from the country
and said the insurgents would not negotiate while there were
still foreign troops on Afghan soil.