Kabul: The arrest of Taliban leaders has had
a "negative impact" on peace talks between the Afghan
government and the insurgents, a spokesman for President Hamid
Karzai said Saturday.
The recent arrests in Pakistan of the Taliban's
second-in-command, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, and others in
the Islamists' hierarchy, slowed down Afghan government
initiatives to broker peace, Siamak Hirawi said.
"We confirm the negative impact of the arrests on the
peace process that the Afghan government has initiated," said
Hirawi, Karzai's deputy spokesman.
His was the first official confirmation from the Kabul
government that there had been contact with the Taliban, with
the intention of discussing an end to the insurgency now in
its ninth year.
He also confirmed that the former UN envoy to
Afghanistan, Kai Eide, had held peace talks with Taliban
figures and said Eide had kept the Afghan government informed
of his actions.
Eide, who stepped down from the UN post earlier this
month, confirmed for the first time in a interview on
Friday that he had been holding talks with senior Taliban
figures, starting around a year ago.
PTI
First Published: Saturday, March 20, 2010, 20:14