DAR AL ISLAM - AFGHANISTAN: WE ARE READY TO EMBRACE MULLAH OMAR

Karzai ready to embrace Mullah Omar for peace

Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai has said he is willing to hold talks with the Taliban in order to ensure peace and stability in the country.

But there are doubts whether the latter would be ready to talk to a regime that they consider a "puppet" of the United States.

The US too is opposed to talking to the Taliban, German magazine Der Spiegel has said in its latest issue.

"I will embrace Mullah Omar and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar for peace in Afghanistan, for stability in Afghanistan. But it is the Afghan people who should decide on the atrocities committed against the Afghan people," Karzai told the magazine.

This statement is in keeping with the olive branch that he has been offering even as the Taliban, ousted from power in Kabul in 2001, have resurged in a big way and threatened to launch a spring offensive, using their base in neighbouring Pakistan.

But Karzai is hoping to persuade pragmatics to split from the hardliners. He would even consider including Taliban in his government, he said.

According to Mullah Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, the former Taliban foreign minister, negotiations have to take place "at the highest level" to prevent the war from spreading throughout the entire country.

"The talks should include all the parties," the magazine quoted him as saying.

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