CENTRAL ASIA: IRIN News Briefs
AFGHANISTAN: Opposition gloomy about UN peace talks
The Afghan opposition Northern Alliance said it was not optimistic about
UN-sponsored peace talks with the ruling Taliban movement announced last
week, an AFP report said on Tuesday. The UN special envoy to Afghanistan,
Francesc Vendrell, said on Friday that the Taliban and opposition
commander Ahmad Shah Masood had agreed to indirect peace talks under UN
auspices. However, an aide of Masood, told AFP by satellite telephone from
northern Afghanistan that "Mr Vendrell sounds optimistic but we do not see
any grounds to be so...We believe this is not something new". "It has
been our initial position to seek peace through talks with the United
Nations having the central role." Previous negotiations, including a
round set up by the Organisation of the Islamic Conference earlier this
year, have failed to produce results and the bitter civil war continues in
Afghanistan's rugged northeast. Meanwhile, the Taliban deputy information
minister, Abdurrahman Ahmad Hotak, on Sunday also said the agreement was
nothing new, adding: "We have always wanted serious talks and sincere
talks."
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