Afghan officials met with Taliban, ambassador says

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A former Taliban ambassador said Monday that the hard-line militants sat with Afghan officials and Saudi King Abdullah over an important religious meal in Saudi Arabia late last month as the insurgency raged back home.

Abdul Salam Zaeef, the Taliban’s former ambassador to Pakistan, denied that the get-together could be construed as peace talks. But President Hamid Karzai has long called for negotiations with the Taliban, and the meeting could spur future initiatives.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said Monday that the militant group is independent from al-Qaida. The U.S. and other Western countries will never accept a peace deal with al-Qaida, the group behind 9/11. That could provide incentive for Taliban leader Mullah Omar to cement his independence from bin Laden’s organization.

With U.S. and NATO forces suffering their deadliest year so far in Afghanistan, the top U.N. envoy, Kai Eide, said Monday that the war “has to be won through political means.”

“And that means political engagement. Then comes a question — with whom do you engage? My general answer is that if you want to have relevant results, you must speak to those who are relevant,” Eide told a news conference. “But these are processes that are very difficult to initiate. Nevertheless, in my view, a policy of engagement is the right policy.”