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Afghanistan Taliban reject U.S media report on talks

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Islamabad, Oct 6, IRNA

Pakistan-Afghan Taliban

Afghanistan's Taliban have dismissed U.S media report as baseless that their representatives joined recent talks in Saudi Arabia with Afghan government and other Afghan groups.

Western media have reported that Taliban and a representative from Hekmatyar's Hizb-e-Islami took part in talks hosted by King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz.

There are reports that former Taliban foreign minister Maulvi Wakil Ahmed Mutawakil and former ambassador to Pakistan Mulla Zaeef also attended the talks.

But Taliban said that former officials can not represent the group in any talks.

"Afghanistan Islamic Emirate leadership council consider such baseless rumours as a failed attempts of the enemy to create mistrust and concerns among Afghans and other nations and Mujahideen," a statement from Afghanistan's Taliban said.

A source of Hizb-e-Islami said that Hekmatyar's son-in-law Ghairat Baheer attended the talks.

Baheer, who was arrested in Pakistan in 2002 and had been imprisoned in the U.S detention center at Bagram, was freed in May this year, in an apparent move of reconciliation.

"No official member of the Taliban is currently or in the past negotiated with the US or the puppet Afghan government. A few former officials of Taliban who are under house arrest or have surrendered do not represent Islamic Emirate," the Taliban statement said.

"If, our fight was for ministries and other prominent positions in the puppet administration then such negotiations would have made sense, but this is not the case, our struggle is to implement the rules of Allah Almighty in Afghanistan by eradicating the enemies of Islam".

The statement said that dialogue which is in favour of Afghanistan and Islam it will never be hidden from the nation. "Our struggle will continue until the departure of all foreign troops".

The statement said that reports are totally baseless that a "peace process" between Taliban and Kabul puppet administration which is being sponsored by Saudi Arabia and supported by Britain, or that there are "unprecedented talks" involving a senior ex-Taliban member who is traveling between Kabul and the alleged bases of the Taliban senior leadership in Pakistan.