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Taliban denies negotiations with Afghan government

By Alex Rodriguez
 and Laura King
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REPORTING FROM ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN, AND KABUL, AFGHANISTAN -- The Taliban movement on Thursday strongly denied participating in secret talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s government, even as the Afghan leader sought help from Pakistani officials to facilitate peace talks.

“We have not decided to negotiate with the Karzai regime,” said spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid. He called the Karzai administration “impotent” and accused the Afghan leader of wanting “to extend his foreign-backed power for a few more days.”

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“This false campaign will fail,” he said.

Karzai’s visit to Islamabad, the Pakistan capital, Thursday came amid reports that he had said in an interview that the U.S. and Afghan governments had begun secret talks with the Afghan Taliban insurgency. In recent months, U.S. officials have been meeting with Taliban envoys to discuss the establishment of a Taliban office in the gulf state of Qatar.

But late Thursday, the Taliban issued its statement denying negotiations. Previously, the Taliban leadership has dismissed Karzai as a “puppet” and publicly indicated willingness to hold contacts only with the Americans and the West.

A member of the Karzai-appointed body set up in 2010 to try to begin negotiations with the Taliban, Haji Musa Hotak, had said the Taliban position had changed.

“The Taliban have stopped insisting on talking to the U.S. and not the Afghan government,” he said. “Now the Taliban are saying they are ready to talk with the Afghan government face to face. They said they will talk to both Americans and the Afghan government.”

Karzai held separate meetings with Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and President Asif Ali Zardari. He also met with Zardari and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who also arrived in Islamabad on Thursday.

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--Alex Rodriguez and Laura King

World Now
Alex Rodriguez

As the Chicago Tribune’s foreign editor/global connections editor, Alex Rodriguez helps oversee the paper’s Nation/World coverage while also helping to steward the Tribune’s efforts to cover Chicago’s connections to the rest of the world — economically, demographically and culturally. Before taking on his new post in August 2013, he worked as a foreign correspondent for 11 years. From 2002 to 2009, he was the Tribune’s Moscow Bureau chief, covering the territory of what used to be the Soviet Union and focusing on the impact Vladimir Putin’s leadership had on Russia and the rest of the world. From 2009 until August 2013, he served as the Pakistan Bureau Chief for the Los Angeles Times, covering one of America’s most important — and difficult — allies in the war on terror. Before working abroad, Alex spent several years as a reporter at the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times. He is a graduate of Western Illinois University in Macomb, Ill.

Laura King

Laura King is a Washington, D.C.-based reporter for the Los Angeles Times. A member of the Foreign/National staff, she primarily covers foreign affairs. She previously served as bureau chief in Jerusalem, Kabul and Cairo.

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