Taliban reject Karzai claim of secret meetings

 

"The Islamic Emirate strongly
rejects Karzai's remarks and adds that the Islamic Emirate has never met with
the representatives of the powerless Kabul administration, and has made no
decision to hold talks with the Karzai government, even in the future," the
Taliban said in a statement e-mailed to CNN.

The statement followed a
report in the Wall Street Journal in which Karzai said, "There have been
contacts between the U.S. government and the Taliban, there have been contacts
between the Afghan government and the Taliban, and there have been some contacts
that we have made, all of us together."

Karzai's assertion suggested a
change in course for peace efforts, because the Taliban has long publicly
refused to meet with Karzai's government, and Afghan officials have complained
they were largely sidelined in talks taking place between the United States and
the Taliban.

"The last cards are with us. So far, it has been a
U.S.-Taliban business. We have not been involved in this so I cannot say what
was discussed," an Afghan government official told CNN last month.

In
the statement Thursday, the Taliban insisted that "the enemy has only got
propaganda left to show off its power, which in reality has been given to them
by someone else and only for a few more days" -- an apparent reference to
Karzai's government being bolstered by the United States.

"The Islamic
Emirate believes that even if somebody claiming to be from the address of the
Islamic Emirate has met with Karzai administration, that person is a fake and,
like many times before, once again the Karzai government has been deceived."


In a statement Tuesday, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid called
Karzai's government "a puppet and unauthorized," and said "meeting with them
will not be beneficial in solving the issue."

"The issue is ... who is
powerful and has got the power to make a decision, and who hasn't, and everyone
around the world knows that the one who has got the authority in opposition to
the Mujahideen (the Taliban) is America," he wrote.

Last June, Karzai
said the United States was involved in peace talks with the Taliban, and that
representatives of the government and insurgents had been in touch, but that no
high-level meetings had taken place.

Karzai arrived Thursday in Pakistan
for discussions with President Asif Ali Zardari on improving relations between
the two countries and peace efforts in Afghanistan.