KABUL – The Taliban announced Tuesday a 14-member team to meet Americannegotiators this month in Doha, including five former Guantanamo Bayinmates and a high-profile militant behind bars in Afghanistan.
United States special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad has undertaken extensiverecent peace talks with the Taliban about ending the 17-year war inAfghanistan, with another round expected in late February.
The expanded negotiating team unveiled by the insurgents includes AnasHaqqani, who was captured in 2014 and whose older brother is deputy Talibanleader and head of the Haqqani network.
A spokesman for President Ashraf Ghani, whose administration was notinvited to the most recent round of Taliban talks in January, flatly deniedAnas would be freed.
“Anas Haqqani is in prison, and no decision has been taken for hisrelease,” the spokesman, Haroon Chakhansuri, said on Twitter.
“The people of Afghanistan can rest assured that justice will be ensured.”
The Taliban has long demanded that Anas be released, saying he is astudent. Afghan authorities accuse him of a being a high-level player inthe Haqqani network.
The Taliban affiliate is a designated terror group by Washington that hasbeen blamed for some of the most shocking and brutal attacks acrossAfghanistan since the US invasion of 2001.
“Anas Haqqani was captured by the Americans, and should be released tobetter help with the talks,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFPvia WhatsApp.
The insurgents said the team announced Tuesday “would continue the currentpeace talks with the Americans”.
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Khalilzad, who last met the militants in January, has said he hopes tostrike a deal with the Taliban before the Afghan presidential elections inJuly.
But he has urged caution, saying he did not trust America’s long-timeadversary and that major hurdles remain.
The special envoy has stressed that any US troop withdrawal would bedependent on conditions on the ground, and that the Taliban must sit downwith Kabul and come to an agreement.
The Taliban refuse to talk to Ghani’s government in Kabul, which theyconsider a US puppet.
Khalilzad is leading a large delegation on a six-nation tour, includingAfghanistan, to boost the peace process.
He and other US negotiators are expected to meet the Taliban in Qatar,where the insurgents have their political office, later this month.
The insurgents, who were toppled by US-led forces in 2001, last week heldseparate talks in Moscow with a senior delegation of Afghan politicians,including chief Ghani rivals.
The two-day talks were the Taliban’s most significant engagement withAfghan leaders in years, though without the involvement of the governmentit was unclear what impact they will have. – APP/AFP
