Taliban ready for peace talks in Afghanistan

LONDON - Senior commanders of terror outfit Taliban may enter peace talks to end the insurgency in Afghanistan, a media report said.

Afghan president Hamid Karzai has offered to hold reconciliation talks with Taliban fighters, and in recent months the insurgents have reportedly responded to the offers, according to the Daily Express.

Last night, a senior official said no “big breakthrough was expected imminently”, but added that Taliban figures involved in possible peace talks were “sufficiently senior” for the move to be significant.

Karzai’s drive to reintegrate Taliban fighters into mainstream Afghan society is a key plank of his strategy for the government to take over security responsibility for the whole of the country by the end of 2014.

“Whatever one says about the rate of progress of overt reconciliation, there is no doubt that the number of feelers coming out (from insurgents) is going up,” the official said.

However, military pressure on the Taliban would still be maintained, the official added.