A former Afghan President who heads a new peace council said on Thursday that he is convinced the Taliban is ready to negotiate peace.
Burhanuddin Rabbani told reporters in Kabul that the Taliban has not completely rejected the idea of negotiating a non-military resolution of the war. “They have some conditions to start the negotiations process. It gives us hope that they want to talk and negotiate,” said Mr. Rabbani. “We are taking our first steps,” he said. “I believe there are people among the Taliban that have a message that they want to talk. They are ready.”
The Afghan government has acknowledged that it has been involved in reconciliation talks with the Taliban, but discussions between the two sides have been described as mostly informal and indirect message exchanges relying on mediators.
The Afghan Taliban, meanwhile, has denied having discussions. In a message posted on its website this week, the group said the notion of talks with the enemy was “baseless propaganda” and that negotiations would be a “waste of time”.
In Brussels on Wednesday, a senior NATO official confirmed it has provided safe passage for top Taliban leaders to travel to Kabul for face-to-face negotiations with the Afghan government. It was the most detailed indication so far of U.S. and NATO support of clandestine talks aimed at bringing an end to the nine-year-old war.
