Representatives of the Taliban and Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s government have started secret talks to negotiate an end to the war in Afghanistan, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday, citing Afghan and Arab sources.
The sources, who were not named by the Post, were quoted as saying they believe the Taliban representatives are authorized to speak for the Quetta Shura, the Afghan Taliban organization based in Pakistan, and its leader, Mohammad Omar.
The sources quoted by the Post stressed that the current discussions are in the preliminary stages. The paper said the talks followed inconclusive meetings hosted by Saudi Arabia that wrapped up more than a year ago.
Karzai’s spokesman Waheed Omer, speaking in Kabul, declined to confirm or deny the report of new meetings.
“There were contacts in the past and may now be direct or indirect ones. There have been regular contacts over the past two years,” he said, when asked about the Post story. “There haven’t been any substantive talks, there have been contacts only.”
The Quetta Shura is the remains of the Afghan Taliban government overthrown and driven into Pakistan by the 2001 US invasion of Afghanistan.
“They are very, very serious about finding a way out,” one source close to the talks said of the Taliban, the Post reported.
The newspaper said that Omar’s representatives have insisted publicly that negotiations were impossible until foreign troops withdraw from Afghanistan. The Post said the Quetta Shura has begun to discuss a broad agreement that would include participation of some Taliban figures in Afghanistan’s government and the withdrawal of US and NATO troops on an agreed timeline.
The Post quoted several sources as saying that the talks with the Quetta Shura did’nt involve the Haqqani network, the target of US drone attacks in Pakistan. The Haqqani network is based mainly in Pakistan’s North Waziristan and adjoining provinces in Afghanistan.
Afghan, Arab and European sources cited by the Post said they saw a change of heart by the US toward backing such negotiations.
Meanwhile, NATO and Afghan officials say 16 militants have been killed in operations throughout Afghanistan over the past 24 hours.
NATO says an airstrike killed the “shadow” governor of Faryab Province, identified as Qari Ziauddin, and four other insurgents in the north on Tuesday.
The Afghan Ministry of Defense says joint NATO-Afghan operations resulted in the deaths of 11 other militants.
And Karzai yesterday condemned the “enemies of Afghanistan” on after roadside bombs killed nine people, including five children, on Tuesday night in Kandahar city. He accused militants of deliberately targeting civilians.
The Interior Ministry said the bombs also injured 30 people, including many police officers. The blasts targeted a police vehicle and ripped through an intersection.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary