Secret Saudi dinner, Karzai's brother and the Taliban

The Afghan government of President Hamid Karzai has been involved in secret negotiations with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the former Mujaheddin leader now labeled a terrorist by the US and Britain. The Independent has learned that extensive talks have taken place between President Karzai's representatives and the Hekmatyar group which has been responsible for a series of bloody attacks in Afghanistan. The revelation, from senior diplomatic sources, comes alongside a report claiming that the President's brother, Qayum Karzai, attended a dinner in Saudi Arabia hosted by King Abdullah which was also attended by members of the Taliban insurgency and the former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. The Taliban's former ambassador to Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef told the BBC that a delegation of 15 Afghans attended the formal religious dinner. The Saudis, once the chief financial backers of the Taliban, have offered to be the conduit of talks between Islamist militants and the Afghan government. Saudi and Afghan officials have denied, however, that any serious direct talks took place at the dinner meeting, maintaining that it was a religious and social occasion. Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, the former Taliban foreign minister who attended, said "There were no talks and no Taliban representative was there. It was an ordinary and normal meeting and dinner." News of the purported encounter between the Afghan government and Islamist militants comes amid warnings by American and British officials and senior military officers that a negotiated settlement between the warring parties is the only practical solution to the conflict. The US defense secretary Robert Gates has criticized as "defeatist" comments by Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, the commander of British forces in Helmand, that a Western military victory was not possible. But Mr Gates, who will ask America's European partners to send more troops to Afghanistan at a meeting of Nato defence ministers in Budapest tomorrow, has also acknowledged that talks needed to be held with Taliban leaders who were prepared to work with the Afghan government. It is unclear whether the US would consider 61-year-old Hekmatyar, the man they designated a 'global terrorist' and tried to kill in a missile strike, to be one of those who should be offered negotiations. As a Mujaheddin commander against the Russians the warlord received considerable support from the CIA and Pakistan's military regime. In the civil war which followed the Russian withdrawal from the country, Hekmatyar continued to be backed by the Americans and the Pakistanis despite being blamed for atrocities such as the indiscriminate shelling of the capital Kabul which killed and maimed hundreds of civilians. However Hekmatyar later fell out with the Americans and based himself in Iran from where he directed attacks by his Hezb-I-Islami fighters on Nato and government forces inside Afghanistan. The Iranians eventually expelled Hekmatyar after pressure from the US and he is now believed to be stationed in tribal areas across the border in Pakistan. According to diplomatic sources the Karzai government opened channels to Hekmatyar through members of his family who visited Kabul. Three months ago the warlord's son-in-law, Dr Ghairat Baheer, was released after spending six years in an Afghan prison and is said to be playing a part in ongoing negotiations. Although his forces are engaged in fighting inside Afghanistan, Hekmatyar has remained independent from the Taliban and is said to be at odds with its religious leader Mullah Omar. Some of President Karzai's advisors believe that a truce, in which he will be rewarded by being given a government post, may encourage other militant leaders to consider negotiations. There are also doubts on whether the Saudis are actually in a position to engineer a peace agreement. It is questionable how much influence they continue to have over the Taliban who no longer depend on official funding from the kingdom. Influential figures within the Saudi ruling establishment who are believed to be secretly funding Islamist movements are expected to continue doing so whatever the outcome of the negotiation process.