Saudi Arabia is reluctant to host talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban without concessions from the Islamist movement including renouncing its ties to al Qaeda, sources in Riyadh and Kabul said on Tuesday. An Afghan official said on Monday that talks would be held in the Islamic kingdom this year, but on Tuesday the Afghan ambassador to Riyadh, Saeed Ahmed Omarkhail, said no formal approach had yet been made to the Saudi authorities. “The kingdom has a role and has been involved in these issues in the past… The Afghan president has asked Saudi Arabia to hold talks in the past but there is nothing new,” Omarkhail said. A Saudi source with strong government connections and a senior Afghan government source said Saudi Arabia was taking a cautious approach to talks. Saudi Arabia’s objections to the Taliban’s links to al Qaeda were cited by US diplomats as the reason proposed talks failed to move forwards in early 2010, according to a US diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks. It said Saudi intelligence chief Prince Muqrin turned down a request from Afghan President Hamid Karzai to host talks because the Saudis “would not support such talks until the Taliban renounced al Qaeda”. “The major problem that Saudi has in mind is that the Taliban are heavily linked to al Qaeda, and secondly it’s next to impossible for the Taliban to formally cut ties with al Qaeda,” said an Afghan official.
Other potential sticking points include the Taliban’s use of the title “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan”, which Saudi officials believe precludes the movement from recognising other legitimate power structures in the country, said the Saudi source.
