Afghan govt 'ready to talk' to rebel leaders

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said yesterday he would talk to top insurgent leaders Mullah Mohammad Omar and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, both wanted by the United States, to bring peace to his country.
The president, however, again rejected demands from the Taliban, led by Mullah Omar, and Hekmatyar's Hezb-i-Islami faction that the 50,000 international troops helping Kabul must quit for any negotiations to occur.
"We're ready to talk to all Afghans, any Afghan wanting talks, we're ready," Karzai said when asked if he would negotiate with Mullah Omar and Hekmatyar, both of whom have multi-million-dollar bounties on their heads.
He told reporters that if peace could only be brought to Afghanistan through talks, "we're ready to do it."
This was his most direct invitation yet to leaders of the growing unrest, with previous invitations of talks vague about the whether they were included.
Karzai said he was even ready to give government posts to the Taliban if they renounced violence.
If they asked "'President, give us this or that post in a ministry and we won't fight,' if they ask me for such thing, I would immediately accept," he said.
Asked if Washington would not object to talks with men it has listed as "terrorists," the president said Afghanistan made its own decisions.
"America is not an obstacle to peace talks," he said.
"With those Taliban who are Afghan and sons of this land... we want talks and we have the support of the international community. But one thing I want to make clear is that this would be Afghanistan's decision."
Karzai stressed, however, he would never negotiate with al-Qaeda, which is said to be supporting some elements of the Taliban's insurgency and which was sheltered by the Taliban movement when it was in government between 1996 and 2001.
He also said demands by the Taliban and Hezb-i-Islami (Islamic Party) that foreign troops must leave Afghanistan were unacceptable.