Taliban Refuses Japan's Peace Talk Offer Under UNAfghanistan's Taliban Militia has refused an offer by Japan to hold peace talks with the opposition in Tokyo with the presence of UN official, Taliban ambassador to Pakistan Mulla Abdul Salam Zaeef said Friday.Quoting a letter written by Taliban's Foreign Ministry, which has been delivered to the Japanese embassy in Islamabad, Zaeef said Taliban welcome and respect Japan's good intention to host talks between the Islamic Emirate and our rivals. But unfortunately Japan has not kept in mind the Taliban's policy of boycott of any UN sponsored talks. "We are unable to take part in any talks with the rivals if the United Nations envoy is present in the proposed talks," said the letter. However, Mulla Zaeef said Taliban have never refused to hold talks with the rivals and are ready to enter into dialogue if offered by "impartial" country. Japan last month offered to host talks between Afghan warring factions in Tokyo to try to find out a peaceful settlement of the Afghan conflict. Tokyo hosted indirect talks between the representatives of Taliban and the opposition alliance in the Japanese capital in March last year. Taliban boycotted talks under the United Nations supervision after the Security Council slapped sanctions against the ruling militia when they refused to turn over Osama bin Laden for trial. |
| People's Daily Online --- http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/ |