Taliban hold talks with Iran official in Tehran

Dismiss Afghanistan's dialogue offer

FE Team | Published: December 31, 2018 20:50:19

TEHRAN, Dec 31 (Agencies): Iran says a delegation of the Taliban has discussed efforts to bring peace and end Afghanistan's 17-year war during a rare visit to Tehran.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi says the Taliban delegation arrived on Sunday and met with Iran's deputy foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi.
Ghasemi says they discussed "security issues aimed at driving the peace process in Afghanistan." He says the Afghan government was aware of the talks.
The talks were not the first between the Taliban and Iranian officials. Ali Shamkhani of Iran's Supreme National Security Council confirmed last week in Kabul that such talks have taken place in the past and would continue.
The Taliban have recently held talks in several regional countries amid US plans to withdraw up to half the 14,000 American troops from Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, the Taliban have rejected Kabul's offer of talks next month in Saudi Arabia where the militants, fighting to restore strict Islamic law in Afghanistan, will meet US officials to further peace efforts, a Taliban leader said on Sunday.
Representatives from the Taliban, the United States and regional countries met this month in the United Arab Emirates for talks to end the 17-year war in Afghanistan.
But the Taliban have refused to hold formal talks with the Western-backed Afghan government.
"We will meet the US officials in Saudi Arabia in January next year and we will start our talks that remained incomplete in Abu Dhabi," a member of the Taliban's decision-making Leadership Council told Reuters.
"However, we have made it clear to all the stakeholders that we will not talk to the Afghan government."
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid also said the leaders of the group would not talk to the Afghan government.
The militants have insisted on first reaching an agreement with the United States, which the group sees as the main force in Afghanistan since US-led forces toppled the Taliban government in 2001.
Diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict have intensified after Taliban representatives started meeting US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad this year.
Officials from the warring sides have met at least three times to discuss the withdrawal of international forces and a ceasefire in 2019.
But the United States has insisted that any final settlement must be led by the Afghans.
According to data from the NATO-led Resolute Support mission published in November, the government of President Ashraf Ghani has control or influence over 65 per cent of the population but only 55.5 per cent of Afghanistan's 407 districts, less than at any time since 2001.
The Taliban say they control 70 per cent of the country.
A close aide to Ghani said the government would keep trying to establish a direct line of diplomatic communication with the Taliban.
"Talks should be Afghan-led and Afghan-owned," the aide said on condition of anonymity. "It is important that the Taliban acknowledge this fact."
US President Donald Trump has announced a pullout of American troops from Syria, a decision that prompted the resignation of Defense Secretary James Mattis, and there have been reports that he is considering a partial pullout from Afghanistan.
The former top US commander in Afghanistan said on Sunday that withdrawing up to half the 14,000 American troops serving there would reduce the incentive for the Taliban to negotiate a peace deal after more than 17 years of war.
Retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal said the US has "basically traded away the biggest leverage point we have." McChrystal's comments were in response to reports that President Donald Trump had ordered the Pentagon to develop plans to withdraw thousands of American troops by next summer.