Islamabad, Oct 26(ANI): A key Afghan insurgent group, led by a former warlord, has said that it is willing to pursue "direct or indirect" reconciliation talks with the United States without any preconditions.
The development came days after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton openly sought Pakistan's help to reach out to all insurgent groups for a political settlement of the decade-long war in Afghanistan.
Dr Ghairat Baheer, a senior leader of Gulbudin Hekmatyar's Hizb-e-Islami militant group said that it is to enter into peace talks with the US.
"We are willing to have a direct or indirect political dialogue with Washington," The Express Tribune quoted Dr Baheer, as saying.
However, he hastened to add that such a dialogue must take place in a country other than the US and Afghanistan.
When asked whether the Hizb-e-Islami would accept Islamabad's role as an intermediary, he said that Pakistan's role in any future talks would be vital.
Dr Baheer, who is also the son-in-law of Hekmatyar, said that the US would have to establish its seriousness to a political settlement of the Afghan imbroglio before any dialogue took place.
Dr Baheer, who was earlier held by US forces in extrajudicial detention for over six years at different facilities in Afghanistan and the US, including the infamous Guantanamo Bay, denied Western media reports that Washington had rejected an earlier peace overture of his group.
"We never attempted to hold negotiations with the United States on our own," he maintained.
Hizb-e-Islami has been fighting the US-led NATO troops in Afghanistan, and is also actively involved in Afghan politics at the same time.
Some of the group's former fighters hold portfolios in Afghan President Hamid Karzai's cabinet, the report said, adding that the speaker of the Afghan Wolosi Jirga, lower house of parliament, Abdul Rahoof Ibrahimi, is a former Hizb leader. (ANI)
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