Ex-Afghan official calls change in Kabul's strategy on Taliban

Afghan President Hamid Karzai's decision to change Kabul's strategy on peace talks with the Taliban is premature, a former Afghan foreign ministry official said on Sunday.Speaking to FNA in Kabul, Former Deputy Foreign Minister Mahmoud Seiqal said that currently there is no necessity for talks with the Pakistani government and "Karzai's statements about the failure of the peace talks with the Taliban and the need for dialogue with Pakistan are premature". Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his top aides said they are abandoning efforts at peace talks with the Taliban after concluding that the Pakistan-based insurgent leaders aren't serious about negotiation. "I do not have any other answer other than saying that the other side of the talks is Pakistan," Karzai said in remarks he made to religious leaders on Friday that were released on Saturday. "This is because we cannot find Mullah Mohammad Omar. Where is he? We cannot find the Taliban council. Where is it?" Seiqal said that Afghan president should oust aids and statesmen who were involved in the failed talks with the Taliban since their presence means another failure in future. Kabul revised its policy on peace talks after the assassination of Afghan top peace envoy Burhanuddin Rabbani by a turban bomber last month which Afghan officials say was planned by the Afghan Taliban's leadership body, the Quetta Shura, in Pakistan. Rabbani's death was the latest in a string of high-profile assassinations that have undercut the Afghan government.