Taliban set to attend Paris conference
2012-12-10 19:36
Kabul - The Taliban said on Monday it would attend a
conference in Paris on Afghanistan this month but would not hold peace talks
with Afghan government delegates or other groups.
A member of Afghanistan's government-appointed High Peace
Council said, however, that its representatives would meet the Taliban.
"Obviously, yes we will, as we all attend the same
conference. And we could also meet them on the sidelines of the meeting,"
Din Mohammad, who is also a cabinet minister, told AFP.
President Hamid Karzai has long sought peace talks with
the Taliban, who have waged an 11-year insurgency, but the Islamists have
dismissed his government as a puppet of the United States.
"We welcome any conference that is aimed at peace
and stability in Afghanistan," presidential spokesperson Aimal Faizi told
AFP.
Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said in a
statement that the militants had accepted an invitation to attend the
conference, which French government sources described as an internal Afghan colloquium
on the future of the country.
"The Taliban in this conference will express its
stance to the world community and we will send two representatives," he
said.
"We must clarify that no talks with anyone are
involved. This is only a research conference and the representatives of the
Taliban are attending the conference only to address directly the world about
their views face to face."
The Taliban said their invitation was recognition that
the "Taliban are not just a simple movement [but] a movement with roots
among the people".
"The Americans came to accepting the Taliban as a
reality," it said.
Preliminary contacts between the US and the Taliban in
Doha were broken off in March when the militants failed to secure the release
of five of their senior members held in Guantanamo Bay.
