[Al Jazeera] The Afghan Taliban...Arabic for
students...
has called for direct talks with the US to take place in its political office in Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
A senior Taliban official based in Doha told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that the group invites US officials to its political office in Qatar to discuss a "peaceful solution" to end the bloodshed in Afghanistan.
His comments followed local news media reports in Kabul on Friday, claiming that the Afghan government has been discussing with Qatari authorities the closure of the Taliban's Doha office.
The media reports cited government officials as saying the Doha office had "no positive consequence in terms of facilitating the peace talks".
In an apparent warning to the Afghan government, the Taliban official said further talk of shuttering the Doha office would scuttle the group's offer of talks altogether.
The Taliban official also said that departure of American troops from Afghanistan remains a precondition for the group's talks offer.
"Our struggle is for the liberation of the country," he said. "It is not a power struggle. How can a liberation struggle be deemed complete without foreign forces pulling out?
"Since it is [only] the US which can decide and implement a decision for the withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan, that is why direct talks with the US are necessary in the first phase.
"During a second phase, we can sit with the Afghan government and discuss all of the domestic issues."