Beijing to host ‘intra-Afghan’ conference: Taliban

China has invited a Taliban delegation to attend an "intra-Afghan" conference in Beijing, a militant spokesman said yesterday, after a prospective deal between the United States and the insurgents collapsed last month. Suhail Shaheen, a Taliban political spokesman, said on Twitter that Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the group's co-founder, had met with Chinese diplomats in Doha, where the militants have a political office. "Both sides discussed the upcoming intra-Afghan conference in Beijing and issues related to the solution of Afghan problem," Shaheen wrote. He later told AFP the conference would take place October 29-30. Talks between the US and the Taliban fell apart last month.