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Afghanistan's president Hamid Karzai shortly after his re-election in November 2009 - Source: Reuters -
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Afghan President Hamid Karzai has met a senior delegation for
peace talks with one of the main insurgent groups fighting against
his government and foreign troops, Karzai's spokesman said.
Although the talks with delegates from the Hezb-i-Islami group
appeared to be preliminary, it was Karzai's first confirmed direct
contact with the faction and could signal prospects for a separate
peace with a group that rivals the Taliban.
"I can confirm that a delegation of Hezb-i-Islami ... is in Kabul
with a plan and has met with the president," Karzai's spokesman,
Waheed Omer, said.
A spokesman for Hezb-i-Islami said it was the first time the group
had sent senior envoys to Kabul for peace talks.
They had brought a 15-point peace plan which includes a demand
for withdrawal of foreign troops, said Haroun Zarghoun, spokesman
for the group's fugitive leader, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
Hekmatyar's Hezb-i-Islami has shared some of the aims of the
Taliban, but has led a separate insurgency mainly in the east and
pockets of the north of the country.
In recent months Taliban fighters have pushed into Hezb-i-Islami
strongholds, leading to clashes between fighters from the two
groups.
The delegation is led by Qutbuddin Helal, a former prime minister
and deputy to Hekmatyar, and also includes Hekmatyar's son-in-law,
Zarghoun said.
"The main point of the plan is the withdrawal of all foreign forces
from July this year, and that this is to be completed within six
months," Zarghoun said on a mobile phone with a Pakistan
number.
"The current government and parliament are to function until a
provisional administration is formed after six months, and
presidential and parliamentary polls are held in March 2011," he
said, adding that details of the plan were negotiable.
Karzai has launched a high profile effort to reach out to
insurgents this year, and included a former Hezb-i-Islami member as
the economy minister in his new cabinet in January.
Zarghoun said the delegation might also meet US officials to
discuss the plan, however US embassy spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden
said the United States had no plans to meet them.
"The US does support the Afghan government's interest in reaching
out to members of insurgent groups that cease support to the
insurgency, live in accordance with the Afghan constitution,
renounce violence and have no ties to al Qaeda or terrorist groups
that share its objectives," she said.
Washington, which has the bulk of the 120,000 international troops
in Afghanistan, has been cautious about Karzai's efforts to reach
out to senior militants.
Troops increase
The United States is in the process of increasing its forces in
Afghanistan this year but has already announced plans to begin
withdrawing in mid-2011.
Western governments and Karzai hope an outreach programme
combined with a year of stepped-up military pressure will persuade
insurgents to lay down their arms.
The former head of the United Nations mission in Afghanistan, Kai
Eide, confirmed last week that he had held talks with Taliban
representatives over the past year.
He said those talks ended in recent weeks after Pakistan
arrested the Afghan Taliban's number two leader, Abdul Ghani
Baradar.
Hezb-i-Islami is one of the three groups that NATO forces recognise
as the main insurgent factions, led by Hekmatyar, a veteran
anti-Soviet guerrilla commander, civil war faction leader and
former prime minister.
Hekmatyar's Islamist fighters have long fought NATO and Afghan
government forces in the east and in pockets in the north.
Like Karzai, Hekmatyar is an ethnic Pashtun, the traditional rulers
of Afghanistan which makes up the bulk of the insurgency against
the foreign forces.
Hekmatyar is known for repeatedly shifting alliances over three
decades of war.
The group has in the past claimed to share some aims with the
Taliban, but has remained separate, even as growing Taliban
influence has spread to Hezb-i-Islami areas.
Earlier this month, the government said scores of Hezb-i-Islami
fighters in a northern district had surrendered after clashing with
Taliban guerrillas over control of villages.
