Kabul: President Hamid Karzai has met
delegates from Afghanistan's second-biggest militant group and
is studying their peace proposals, his spokesman said on Monday,
raising hopes for reconciliation efforts.
Hezb-e-Islami is headed by warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar,
who is black-listed as a terrorist by the United Nations and
United States. The latter accuses him of taking part in and
supporting attacks by al Qaeda and the Taliban.
Karzai has been pursuing peace talks in the hope of
ending the crippling insurgency led by the Taliban, while the
United States implements a troop surge designed to weaken the
militants.
Hezb-e-Islami, known in the 1980s as a major anti-Soviet
resistance force, had said it would only hold peace talks with
Karzai's government once all foreign forces had quit Afghan
soil. The latest move could thus be seen as an early success
in the president's reconciliation efforts.
"I confirm that a meeting between the Hezb-e-Islami
delegation and the president took place a couple of days
back," presidential spokesman Waheed Omar said to a news agency.
"They brought with them a peace plan, a proposal, and the
president is stuyding it," he said, confirming that the
president had yet to respond to the plan.
The US State Department designated Hekmatyar, a former
prime minister, as a terrorist in 2003, accusing him of taking
part in and supporting Al-Qaeda and Taliban attacks.
Hezb-e-Islami's spokesman Haroon Zarghon said to a news agency that the delegation of senior members handed Karzai a 15-point
document they hoped would form the basis of peace talks.
Of the 15 points, "one of them is to set a clear timeline
for the withdrawal of foreign forces and another the formation
of an interim administration," Zarghon said by telephone from
an undisclosed location.
Hezb-e-Islami was passive during the 1996-2001 Taliban
rule, but regrouped to launch a separate armed resistance,
sharing many of the Taliban's goals, after the latter were
overthrown in the US-led 2001 invasion.
The delegation currently in Kabul is headed by Qutbuddin
Helal, Hekmatyar's deputy and also a former prime minister,
Qaribul Rehman Sayeed, Ghairat Baheer and other prominent
figures who formed Hezb-e-Islami, Zarghon said.
He said Hezb-e-Islami would "for Afghanistan's well-being
and prosperity" also encourage the Taliban to pursue peace
negotiations.
The United States and NATO are in the process of boosting
their troop numbers in Afghanistan to a peak of 150,000, as
efforts to eradicate the Taliban threat intensify,
particularly in the militants' southern strongholds.
PTI
First Published: Monday, March 22, 2010, 20:58