Talking to Taleban is futile says the Afghan president

Afghan president Hamid Karzai has said efforts to talk directly to the Taleban are futile as long as the insurgents show no desire to negotiate in good faith.

Mr Karzai spoke after a meeting with his Pakistani counterpart, Asif Ali Zardari, and a day ahead of a regional conference on security and economic development in Afghanistan.

“We cannot keep talking to suicide bombers,” Mr Karzai said. “Therefore, we have stopped talking about talking to the Taleban until we have an address for the Taleban, until we have a telephone for the Taleban, until we have a door that we can knock on… We have been hurt badly. Our desire for peace has been either misunderstood or misused.”

Mr Karzai said he and Mr Zardari, along with Turkish president Abdullah Gul, agreed on an inquiry into the assassination of peace envoy Burhanuddin Rabbani, a former Afghan president who was killed last month by a suicide bomber posing as an emissary from the Taleban.