WASHINGTON (AP) — The Taliban won’t join talks with the United States and Afghanistan because of a dispute over the name of its representative office in Qatar, a senior U.S. official said Wednesday.
The official said the Taliban never replied to an offer to meet U.S. diplomats in Doha on June 23 and are now resisting peace talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s government, as the Taliban previously had agreed. The official said the Taliban have taken those positions because they insist their facility in Qatar be called the “Political Office of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan” and be identified as such on an exterior sign. They also want to fly the same flag they flew when the ruled Afghanistan, the official said.
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