KABUL – A guerrilla group has met Afghan President Hamid Karzai a second time, bringing an initial round of peace talks to a close with no breakthrough but with a commitment to continue, a member of the team said on Wednesday. With the insurgency at the most violent since the ouster of the Taliban in 2001, despite the presence of tens of thousands of foreign troops, Western leaders say the conflict cannot be won militarily and talks must be held with some rebels. Afghan officials said last week that Karzai met a senior delegation from Hezb-i-Islami, one of the three main groups fighting the government and foreign forces, his first confirmed talks with the group which in some ways rivals the Taliban. Although the talks were preliminary, the public acknowledgement of the meeting was itself a milestone after many months of furtive efforts by Karzai to reach out to militants. Qaribur Rahman Saeed, a member of the Hezb-i-Islami delegation, said the team had wrapped up its mission after meeting the president for a second time on Tuesday, and would now report back to fugitive leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. "We are sending Mr. Karzai's viewpoints to our leader and will get his response on it after several weeks and then we will come to Kabul to resume a second round of talks," he said. The group presented Karzai with a 15-point plan that includes a demand that Western troops begin pulling out from Afghanistan in July this year and withdraw completely within six months, although delegates have said the time-frame is negotiable. "The draft plan may will be reformed. We are flexible. We want this process to continue and saw that feeling on the part of the government too. We are sure that there is sincerity on both sides," Saeed told Reuters. Setting a firm time-table for the exit of foreign forces could also prompt the Taliban to join in the peace talks, he added. US President Barack Obama plans to start withdrawing forces in July 2011, although the pace of the pace of the withdrawal will depend on conditions on the ground. The Hezb-i-Islami talks come amid a bid by Karzai to reach out to insurgents that he hopes will eventually yield talks with the Taliban themselves.
