Afghan President Hamid Karzai is reviewing his strategy for making peace with the Taliban and will reveal the next steps “very soon,” a spokesman said Sunday, following the murder of his top peace envoy.
Karzai spoke Friday of his frustration at the failure of peace talks to establish contact with senior Afghan Taliban chiefs such as supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and stressed the need for dialogue with Pakistan to secure stability.
His pointman on Taliban talks, High Peace Council chairman Burhanuddin Rabbani, was assassinated last month by a turban bomber who was mistakenly believed to be bringing a special message from insurgents. No substantive peace talks have yet taken place between the Afghan government and the Taliban, leaders of a 10-year insurgency which has led to 140,000 foreign troops being stationed in Afghanistan.
“All peace talks with the Taliban are suspended. The president will review the peace and reconciliation strategy,” Siamak Herawi, a spokesman for Karzai said. The spokesman said Karzai was expected to announce a new strategy for peace efforts in a televised address “very soon.”
The Taliban have long rejected Karzai’s calls for peace talks, saying they will not hold any discussions until all foreign troops leave the country.
Afghan officials say Rabbani’s murder was planned by the Afghan Taliban’s leadership body, the Quetta Shura, in Pakistan but the militant group has not claimed responsibility.