Germany not venue for US-Taliban talks: official
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
Berlin, June 20, IRNA -- German foreign ministry spokesman Andreas Peschke here on Monday denied reports that his country had been the venue for talks between the US and Taliban.
Asked at a routine weekly government press briefing whether he could confirm the existence of such negotiations in Germany, Peschke replied he could 'not confirm' such talks.
Peschke's denial followed earlier statements by former Afghan reconstruction minister Amin Farhang who welcomed the latest round of talks between the US and representatives of the radical Taliban militia.
Amin was cited as saying that he was 'not surprised' by a report in the Washington Post which quoted a senior Afghan official as saying an American representative attended at least three meetings in Qatar and Germany with a Taliban official considered close to Mohammad Omar, the group’s leader.
'Americans as well as the Afghan government have tried for quite some time to get into contact with Taliban. I think it's good that Germany was chosen as a venue for negotiations,' said Amin, pointing out that the German city of Bonn was hosting the first round of talks on Afghanistan in late 2001.
Efforts to open talks with the insurgent group failed late last year when an alleged Taliban leader, secretly flown by NATO to Kabul, turned out to be a fraud, according to the Washington Post.
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