‘Mullah Omar is willing to talk’

Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar is willing to join the Afghan peace process, the Afghan High Peace Council said on Friday. According to an Afghan private TV channel, the Council said there was optimism that the Taliban’s willingness to hold peace talks would increase, adding that direct and indirect contacts were being made with the group. The news follows Pakistani media’s reports that Mullah Omar was ready to hold direct talks with the US.
The New York Times earlier wrote that the Taliban group was willing to join the peace process, something the High Peace Council also confirmed. “Mullah Mohammad Omar is ready to join the peace process and he no more sticks to not holding talks with the Afghan government,” Ismaiel Qasemyar, a top member of the High Peace Council, said. He said direct and indirect contacts were made with important sources and there was more optimism.
“When we express optimism, it is not baseless optimism,” Qasemyar stressed. While the Taliban dismissed such reports, the New York Times has recently written that the Taliban had in their recent statements expressed readiness to hold talks before withdrawal of all foreign forces from Afghanistan. Some of the Pakistani media reports quote officials saying that Mullah Omar had put forward some conditions, including the withdrawal of foreign forces and the release of all Taliban members from US and Afghan jails.