KABUL: The Afghan Taliban said on Wednesday they had nothing to do with a recent meeting of former and current Taliban figures who appeared open to talks with the Afghan government.

In a statement emailed to media organisations, spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the Taliban remained opposed to direct talks with the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, whom the militants regarded as a Western agent.

“There was no meeting in Dubai in which the Islamic Emirate (Taliban) participated, nor are there any talks with the so-called Afghan Peace Council,” Mujahid said, using the Taliban’s name for their 1996-2001 government.

“Fake negotiations and dramas will not only complicate the matter and prolong the war, but they will not bear fruit.”

On Sunday, Afghan officials said a delegation from Kabul’s High Peace Council, a government body established to foster a political end to the war, had gone to Dubai in hopes of meeting a group of former and current Taliban figures who had hinted at readiness to hold talks.

The officials hoped to meet a group that gathered there earlier this month, hosted by a former Taliban minister named Agha Jan Mutassim. The trip seemed to raise the possibility of a breakthrough in the Western-backed Afghan government’s quest for direct peace talks among the Afghan parties.

Peace Council officials were not immediately available to confirm whom the delegates met with in Dubai, or indeed whether a meeting was held at all.—Reuters