Karzai heads to Qatar for talks with Taliban

Afghan President Hamid Karzai yesterday travelled to Qatar to discuss Taliban militants opening an office in the Gulf state for peace talks that could end more than a decade of war.
Until earlier this year, Karzai was opposed to the Islamist extremists having a meeting venue in Qatar as he feared that his government would be frozen out of any negotiations.
The militants refuse to have direct contact with Karzai, saying he is a puppet of the United States, which supported his rise to power after the military operation to oust the Taliban in 2001.
But, with Nato-led combat troops due to withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, Karzai agreed to the proposed Taliban office in the Qatari capital Doha and is expected to firm up the plan with the emir of Qatar today.
Any future peace talks still face numerous hurdles before they begin, including confusion over who would represent the Taliban and Karzai's insistence that his appointees are at the centre of negotiations.
"We will discuss the peace process, of course, and the opening of an office for the Taliban in Qatar," presidential spokesman Aimal Faizi told AFP before Karzai left Kabul.
A statement from Karzai's office said he was accompanied on the two-day state visit by foreign minister Zalmai Rassoul and Salahuddin Rabbani, chairman of the High Peace Council.
Negotiating with the hardline Taliban regime that had harboured al-Qaeda before the 9/11 attacks was for many years an anathema to countries fighting in the UN-backed coalition against the militants.