‘Freed Bay detainee should have role in talks’

KABUL: Former Afghan president Hamid Karzai, who still wields considerable inluence in today’s Afghanistan despite being out of ofice for four years, said he welcomes the entry of ive Taliban leaders who were freed from the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay in 2014 into peace negotiations.

Karzai, who led the country from 2001-2014, also said he now supports talks between the Taliban and the United States — but only as a step toward direct talks between the insurgents and a negotiating team representing Afghans from across society.

He spoke to The Associated Press on the grounds of the presidential palace, where he lives with his young family and meets regularly with tribal leaders, Afghan government oficials and foreign notables. Just last week the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan stopped by Karzai’s ofice, where Karzai attached several conditions to Washington’s efforts to ind a negotiated end to the protracted conlict.

He also has met with Washington’s new peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad. Since Khalilzad’s appointment last month, peace efforts have accelerated.

The ive former Guantanamo Taliban detainees __ some of whom have disturbing pasts and all of whom were close to the hard-line founder of the Taliban movement, Mullah Mohammed Omar __ have come out of the shadows to join the insurgent group’s political ofice in the Middle Eastern where they will be involved in peace negotiations.

They were released in 2014 in exchange for captured US Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.

The co-founder of the Taliban movement, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, was released from a Pakistani jail where he had been since his arrest in 2010 in a joint US and Pakistan operation. His release had long been demanded by the Taliban. It came following Khalilzad’s trip to Pakistan last month, his irst as a new peace envoy.

Baradar was reportedly arrested after seeking to start peace talks with Karzai without Pakistan’s involvement. In the interview, Karzai accused both the US and Pakistan of foiling talks with Baradar at the time. He also said he made repeated attempts to gain Baradar’s release, but his efforts were thwarted by both the US and Pakistan.

Karzai’s inal term in power was marked by a prickly relationship with the United States.