Taliban Rejects Afghan Peace Offer ✖️

Delegates at the just concluded Afghan peace conference - locally called the jirga - have called on the government to hold talks with the Taliban.<br /><br />They said that talking to the armed group was the war-torn country's best, and possibly last, chance for peace.<br /><br />About 1,500 delegates, representing Afghans across the political and social spectrum, attended the meeting in Kabul's southeastern suburbs.<br /><br />The aim of the jirga was to formulate a plan for Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, to hold reconciliation talks with the Taliban.<br /><br />Shortly after the jirga ended, Karzai initiated his first move, ordering that Taliban fighters being held in Afghan jails on doubtful evidence must be released.<br /><br />But achieving reconciliation seems difficult with Taliban fighters not too keen to negotiate.<br /><br />Many of them say they are winning the war and did not see the need for negotiations.<br /><br />Al Jazeera's James Bays reports from the remote northern region of Nuristan, on the Taliban's lack of enthusiasm for talks.<br /><br />[June, 06, 2010]