Mullah Omar sent letter to Obama to end war

 

 

Reclusive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar wrote to President Barack Obama last year indicating an interest in talks key to ending the war in Afghanistan, current and former US officials told The Associated Press.

However, the Afghan Taliban yesterday denied the report.

"Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan rejects this baseless rumour with the strongest of words," a statement on the Islamist group's website said, using the name by which the Taliban often calls itself.

Omar is the spiritual leader of the Taliban movement, and directs the organisation's guerrilla military campaign. He was the de facto head of state in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan prior to the US invasion that toppled the Taliban government in 2001.

The letter, intended for President Barack Obama, reportedly complained that the United States had not done enough to establish good faith for negotiations, such as arranging the release of Taliban prisoners held in the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The White House itself was "skeptical" the letter was actually from Mullah Omar, the official said, though others within the administration believed it was authentic.

Preliminary, clandestine meetings between US and Taliban representatives began last year, after the Obama administration shifted course and decided to explore peace talks while fighting was still fierce.

The message arrived when those early contacts had gone all but dormant, however, because of leaks to the press that sent the chief Taliban emissary briefly underground.

Those preliminary sessions opened the way for more formal talks that the US officials now publicly welcome. The Obama administration is now considering release of five top Taliban leaders from Guantanamo as a starting point for negotiations.

The five would be sent to custody in the Gulf nation of Qatar, where the Taliban plan to establish a office.

The Taliban last month said it would open a political office in Qatar, suggesting the group may be willing to engage in negotiations.