PESHAWAR: Taliban and even President Hamid Karzai are crying hoarse that they haven’t held any peace talks yet but it is intriguing that some Western media organisations are insisting that the two sides are negotiating with help from the government of Saudi Arabia.

Such reports are being disseminated at a time when British and certain other Western officials are calling for talks with the Taliban for finding a political instead of a military solution to the Afghan conflict. Once again on Monday, a major US television channel reported that an 11-member Taliban delegation had held talks for four days in late September with Afghan government officials and that a representative of former mujahideen leader Gulbaddin Hekmatyar also attended the meetings in the holy city of Makkah. It claimed Saudi King Abdullah met the Afghan delegates to show his personal commitment to the cause of peace and reconciliation in war-ravaged Afghanistan.

Earlier, a British newspaper had reported that a former Taliban leader with the blessings of Saudi intelligence was mediating between the Taliban movement and the Afghan government. It said the British intelligence was also backing the effort.

President Karzai promptly denied the report by the British newspaper, though he disclosed that his government had requested Saudi Arabia to facilitate meetings and negotiations between it and the Taliban. Regretting that Taliban didn’t respond positively to his government’s offer of a dialogue, he went to the extent of referring to Taliban leader Mulla Mohammad Omar as his ‘brother’ and offered to provide guarantees for his safety if he visited Kabul for talks.

As expected, both Afghan government and the Taliban have denied the latest reports about their meetings and negotiations in Makkah. An Afghan government official said in Kabul that no such talks had taken place.

Taliban spokesman Qari Muhammad Yousaf Ahmadi made it clear that they had not sent any delegation to Saudi Arabia for talks. He said Taliban were sticking to their stand not to hold negotiations as long as foreign occupation forces were present in Afghanistan.

Another Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said some former Taliban members may have visited Saudi Arabia but they were no longer part of their movement and couldn’t represent Taliban in any talks.

It was learnt that former Taliban foreign minister Mulla Wakil Ahmad Mutawwakil, along with another ex-minister Maulvi Arsala Rahmani and Mulla Abdul Salam Zaeef, who was Afghanistan’s ambassador to Pakistan during the last months of Taliban rule, visited Saudi Arabia recently to perform Umra as guests of the Saudi government. At an Iftar-dinner hosted by King Abdullah, the former Taliban members were among the invitees along with delegates from several other countries. An Afghan government delegation led by former chief justice Maulvi Abdul Hadi Shinwari and including lawmaker Abdul Salam Rocketi was also invited by the Saudi government to perform Umra and attend the Iftar party. The chance encounter between the Afghans there is now being described by sections of the Western media as part of a ‘historic’ four-day meeting involving Taliban and Karzai government officials.

Saudi Arabia, which along with Pakistan and UAE had recognised the Taliban-led Afghan government, snapped its contacts with Taliban after the 9/11 attacks on the US. It is understood that the two sides are still estranged with each other and no effort has been made to revive those contacts.

Zaeef, who was arrested by Pakistani authorities in December 2001 after the fall of Taliban regime and delivered to the US military, told the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) Monday that he and his colleagues visited Saudi Arabia to perform Umra on the invitation of the Saudi government. However, he insisted that they neither represented Taliban nor the Afghan government during their visit. “As per my information, no talks were held between Taliban and the Afghan government in Saudi Arabia. Also at King Abdullah’s Iftar-dinner on September 29, there was no discussion whatsoever on the Afghan issue,” he recalled.

Zaeef was freed from the US government’s detention centre in Guantanamo Bay on the recommendation of the Afghan government and is now living in Kabul. He wrote a Pashto book, The Picture of Guantanamo, on his years in jail after his release. The book is being translated into a number of languages.

Taliban leadership is suspicious of Zaeef as well as Mutawwakil and Rahmani because they are living in Kabul under the protection of the Afghan government. This is the reason that they have made it clear that the three had no authority to represent Taliban in any talks. Taliban were unhappy when their former foreign minister Mutawwakil surrendered to the US military in Kandahar without consulting Mulla Omar and the Taliban shura. Mutawwakil wasn’t taken to Guantanamo Bay prison and was freed after remaining imprisoned for sometime at the Kandahar airbase and Bagram detention cells. Zaeef’s position was different as he was apprehended by Pakistani authorities even though he had diplomatic immunity and handed over to the Americans. Rahmani wasn’t arrested after fall of Taliban regime.