Afghan leader heads to Qatar to discuss peace with Taliban

[NBCNews]

  Mohammad Ismail / ReutersAfghanistan's President Hamid Karzai speaks during the opening ceremony of the third year of the Afghanistan parliament in Kabul March 6, 2013. By Ron Popeski and Xavier Briand, Reuters KABUL - Afghan President Hamid Karzai will travel to Qatar within days  to discuss peace negotiations with the Taliban, the Afghan Foreign Ministry said  on Sunday, as efforts intensify to find a negotiated solution to the twelve year  war.

Karzai's trip to Qatar would represent the first time the Afghan  president has discussed the Taliban peace process in Qatar, and comes after  years of stalled discussions with the United States, Pakistan and the Taliban.

The announcement was made only hours after another thorny issue in the  U.S.-Afghan relationship -- the transfer to Afghan control of the last group of  prisoners at the Bagram military complex held by U.S. forces - appeared to be  resolved. The Pentagon announced on Saturday that a deal had been clinched.


Karzai's Qatar trip was announced by Foreign Ministry spokesman Janan  Mosazai.

 

"President Karzai will discuss the peace process and the  opening of a (Taliban) office for the purposes of conducting negotiations with  Afghanistan," he said.

Karzai was expected to travel to Qatar within a  week, a senior Afghan official speaking on condition of anonymity told Reuters.

The United States has said it would support setting up an office in the  Gulf state where peace talks between the Taliban and Afghanistan could take  place.

Follow @NBCNewsWorld "We welcome and fully support President Karzai's visit to Qatar  as a sign of improved relations between the two U.S. allies," said Caitlin  Hayden, a spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council. "The  president and other world leaders continue to call on the Afghan armed  opposition to join a political process."

TENSIONS FLARE

The  announcement comes several weeks after Karzai delivered a fiery speech during  the first visit to Afghanistan by new U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, in  which he accused Washington of holding peace talks with the Taliban in Qatar  without him.

Karzai also accused the Taliban of colluding with America  to keep foreign troops in the country, marking a fresh low point in the  relationship between the Afghan president and his most powerful backer.

Mosazai confirmed the agreement reached on the transfer of detainees  held at the military detention facility at Bagram in Parwan province north of  Kabul.

The issue of detainees at Bagram had become another stress point  in Karzai's relations with Washington. A ceremony formally transferring the last  prisoners to Afghan custody collapsed two weeks ago after Karzai rejected part  of the deal.

American forces control an area of the prison adjacent to  the Bagram military complex, which holds several dozen Taliban fighters  considered by the United States to pose the most severe threat.

Washington is concerned the Afghans may release some of these men when  control of the prison is handed over.

That concern was reinforced during  Karzai's outburst this month, in which he said the United States had been  dragging its heels on prisoner transfers and said he would release those  detainees that were "innocent".

Under the terms of agreement, all  Afghans detained by forces of the U.S.-led coalition would now have to be handed  over to Afghan control within 96 hours of capture, Mosazai said. Any decision to  release them after that would be made only by the Afghan government.

The  United States last year agreed to hand over responsibility for most of the more  than 3,000 detainees at the prison to Afghanistan and held a transfer ceremony  in September.

 

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