By DPA,
Kabul : President Hamid Karzai Thursday inaugurated a peace council designed to coax militants into talks with his government.
The president appointed the 70-member peace council from across the political, tribal and religious spectrum of society last week.
It was hoped that the new body would guide efforts to reach out to the insurgents, who have waged a bloody insurgency to topple the government and force NATO troops from the country.
“People in every village and in every district of this country … hope that through your efforts a lasting peace comes to this oppressed country,” Karzai told the council’s members gathered in the fortified presidential palace.
The president also repeated his call to the Taliban militants to “come and respond to this peace call” and enter negotiations.
Karzai said that the council would conduct its work independently and his government would only extend its support when seen as necessary by the council.
The Taliban, who have repeatedly rejected the government’s overtures in the past, vowed to continue their fight against the foreign troops and Afghan government in an online statement early Thursday.
But the Washington Post reported Wednesday that the Taliban were holding secret talks with the government, with the backing of their top leaders.
The Taliban were negotiating to secure positions for some of their leaders in the Kabul administration, and a safe route into exile for others, the newspaper reported.
Afghan and US officials were also talking to the Taliban-linked Haqqani network, thought to be responsible for several attacks in Kabul, according to Britain’s Guardian newspaper.
The US State Department spokesman PJ Crowley said Wednesday that Washington backed such talks, but was not directly involved.
“This will actually have to be ultimately an arrangement done by the Afghan government,” he said. “We support it, but we will not be directly involved in it.”