News - Afghanistan

Afghan government has recently said that if the prisoners want to join their families in Qatar, it will agree to the decision.

The Afghan government had previously opposed the transfer of Taliban prisoners to Qatar, but a government spokesman, Emal Faizi, says that if the prisoners want to be taken to Qatar, the government will not have any legal responsibilities.

Recently, there were reports about release of five top Taliban leaders from the Guantanamo detention centre.

But US officials have said that no decision has yet been made about release of Taliban prisoners from Guantanamo.

"In talks with the US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Marc Grossman, we agreed that if Taliban prisoners in Guantanamo want to live with their families in Qatar, Afghan government will not oppose it," President Karzai's spokesman, Email Faizi, said.

The presidential palace added that an Afghan delegation will be sent to the Guantanamo detention centre to make sure about consent of the prisoners to live with their families in Qatar.

"When the US government decides to transfer the prisoners to Qatar, we will send a delegation to Guantanamo to see if the prisoners' are content with the transfer," Mr Faizi added.

On the main condition set by the Taliban prior to negotiations is the release of all their prisoners from Guantanamo as US apparently agreed to it.

Mullah Khair Khwah, Mullah Noorullah and Mullah Afzal Akhund have reportedly been released from Guantanamo Detention Centre and transferred to Qatar, but the report was dismissed by the Taliban.

This comes the US Intelligence Department is assessing the risks of transferring five senior Taliban detainees from Guantanamo Bay to a third country as part of the efforts to set peace talks with Taliban, US Intelligence Chief, General David Petraeus recently told the US Congress.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles Times has said that President Hamid Karzai is the main obstacle in peace talks between the US and the Taliban.

As the United States' recently announced to wind down its combat role next year the president is well aware that his own survival - political, and perhaps literal - could be in doubt, Los Angeles Times added.

Yet President Karzai repeatedly tried to thwart the US efforts to bring Taliban into the peace negotiation table deliberately, the Times added.

Yet Karzai has repeatedly tried to thwart the most focused American effort yet to bring the insurgents to the bargaining table, launching a series of actions that appear to be almost deliberate provocation aimed at the United States, diplomats, analysts and observers say Karzai had worked assiduously behind the scenes to scuttle any such contacts. He loudly objected to the prospective locale, and recalled Afghanistan's ambassador to Qatar, complaining that his administration had been left out of the loop in key discussions.

It comes as US has recently started negotiations with the Taliban and plans to open a political office for Taliban in Qatar.