[NYTr] Afghanistan: Taleban shun Karzai peace talks offer

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

BBC - Sep 30, 2007
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7020525.stm

Taleban shun Karzai talks offer

A spokesman for Taleban militants in Afghanistan has rejected another
offer for talks by President Hamid Karzai.

Spokesman Qari Yusuf Ahmadi said the Taleban would never negotiate with
the Afghan authorities while foreign troops remained in the country.

President Karzai repeated on Saturday that he would be willing to offer
the Taleban positions in government if it would bring peace.

He was speaking after a Taleban suicide bomber killed 30 people in
Kabul.

"Taliban are not interested in government posts - ministries or
anything. We want the withdrawal of foreign forces and we stand by our
position," Qari Yusuf Ahmadi told news agencies.

"As long as they have not withdrawn, we'll never talk with the Kabul
administration."

Offer

President Karzai said on Saturday he wished he could contact Taleban
leader Mullah Omar and warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar to ask why they were
trying to destroy Afghanistan.

He said he would meet both men personally, and even offer them cabinet
posts, if it would help to bring about peace.

But he reiterated he would not agree to any troop withdrawal.

The Taleban claimed responsibility for Saturday's suicide bomb attack
on a Kabul bus, which was split in two by the blast.

The attack, in which a further 21 people were injured, was the second
deadliest in the Afghan capital since 2001.

More than 3,000 people have been killed this year as Afghan and foreign
forces battle Taleban fighters.

Scores of Taleban fighters have been killed in the past week.