No objection if Taliban opens office: Minister

Dec 18, 2011 |

IANS

Kabul

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Afghan Foreign Affairs Minister Zalmai Rasoul has said the government will not object to the Taliban opening an office in the country or abroad for conducting negotiations on bringing peace to the country.

"Our priority is that such an office should be inside Afghanistan or in another Islamic country preferably Saudi Arabia or Turkey," Rasoul told reporters on Sunday.

He added that any office opened for dialogue with Taliban should be done in consultation with the government, Xinhua reported.

The Afghan minister emphasized that such office will only be for a dialogue with Taliban and not for political purposes.

He was responding to media reports about opening of a Taliban office in Qatar last week.

The government suspended peace talks with the Taliban after its chief peace negotiator Burhanudin Rabbani was killed in a bomb attack Sep 20 allegedly by the group.

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