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Afghan President Hamid Karzai has reiterated his refusal to sign a key US security pact until a peace process is under way with the Taliban. "Afghanistan will absolutely not accept or sign anything under pressure," he said at a news conference on Saturday. [snip] "If the US is not willing to accept our conditions, they can leave anytime and we will continue our lives," he told reporters in the Afghan capital, Kabul.[snip] He called on the US to be a friend not a rival, but then compared them directly with colonial Britain in the 19th Century - imposing deals on...

Is history repeating itself? In 1998, the Clinton administration sat down at the negotiating table with the Taliban and secured a promise that the Taliban would “not allow terrorists to use Afghanistan as a base for terrorism.” A few months later, al-Qaeda blew up U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Three months after those attacks, the Clinton team was back at the table with the Taliban. According to declassified records, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright agreed “to engage in a serious and confidential dialogue with the Taliban through the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad.” While those negotiations were underway, another meeting...

US Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters Saturday that if peace talks with the Taliban don't get "back on track" the group's new office in Qatar could be closed. Negotiations with the militant group that had been set for Thursday in the Gulf were considered the best chance to bring all parties to the table, but the peace process stalled after Kabul voiced its opposition, saying it thought the Taliban office could be used as a government in exile. "We need to see if we can get back on track ... I don't know whether that's possible or not,"...

(Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Saturday he hoped proposed U.S. talks with the Taliban are put back on track after this week's delays, and warned that a recently opened Taliban office in Qatar may have to close if peace talks do not proceed. "We need to see if we can get back on track," Kerry told a news conference.

WASHINGTON: The United States will begin formal talks with the Taliban, including the Haqqani network, in Doha, Qatar, in a couple of days, Obama administration officials said in a major announcement on Tuesday. The engagement, the first of its kind since the post 9/11 conflict, follows key concessions made by Washington, including dropping the pre-condition that Taliban immediately break ties with al-Qaida, in return for much broader, generic, self-serving commitments by the unyielding terrorist group. In a conference call from Northern Ireland where President Obama is attending the G8 summit, US officials said they expected Taliban to issue a statement...

The Taliban said they were opening an office in Qatar to start peace talks with the Afghan government and revive talks with the U.S., taking an important step toward ending a conflict that has dragged on for over a decade.

US to open direct Taliban talks The US is to open direct peace talks with the Taliban, senior White House officials have announced. The first meeting is due to take place in the coming days in Doha, Qatar, where the Taliban have just opened their first official overseas office. Afghan President Hamid Karzai said his government is also sending a delegation to Qatar to talk to the Taliban. The announcement came on the day Nato handed over security for the whole of Afghanistan to government forces. US officials said prisoner exchanges would be one topic for discussion with the Taliban,...

*snip* As part of the accelerating, high-stakes diplomacy, Reuters has learned, the United States is considering the transfer of an unspecified number of Taliban prisoners from the Guantanamo Bay military prison into Afghan government custody. It has asked representatives of the Taliban to match that confidence-building measure with some of their own. Those could include a denunciation of international terrorism and a public willingness to enter formal political talks with the government headed by Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The officials acknowledged that the Afghanistan diplomacy, which has reached a delicate stage in recent weeks, remains a long shot. Among the...