Taliban Guantanamo Inmates agree Qatar Transfer
Five Taliban Guantanamo detainees have agreed to be transferred to Qatar, and Kabul has dropped its opposition to the move as it seeks to boost peace efforts, an Afghan government spokesman said Sunday.
The inmates told a visiting Afghan delegation they were willing to be transferred to the Middle East state, and it was now up to the U.S. whether they were freed, said Aimal Faizi, spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
"A delegation (from the) national Security Council has met with the five prisoners in Guantanamo," Faizi told Agence France Presse, adding the inmates expressed their willingness to be transferred to Qatar to be reunited with their families.
The Taliban had demanded that the detainees be transferred to Qatar, where they plan to set up a political office, and such a move would ease the path to negotiations with the U.S. aimed at ending the 10-year war with the insurgents.
But Kabul had previously raised strong objections to the proposal, saying it wanted the prisoners transferred directly to Afghanistan. Analysts said the Taliban officials risked being detained if repatriated to Afghanistan.
Kabul is worried about being sidelined in the negotiations towards possible peace between the Taliban and the U.S., prompting Washington to repeatedly reassure Afghan authorities they will be included in discussions.
Faizi said that, "for the sake of peace", the Afghan government would not raise objections if the U.S. sent the inmates to Qatar, adding that "our responsibility was to make sure they would not be transferred as hostages."
The Taliban announced its plan to set up a Qatar office at the start of this year, in a move seen as a precursor to peace talks with Washington.
At the same time, the hardline Islamists demanded the release of prisoners from the U.S. military detention center at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
The U.S. led an invasion of Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington, ousting the hardline Taliban government, and about 130,000 U.S.-led troops are still in the country.
Nearly 10 years since the first handful of detainees arrived at Guantanamo from Afghanistan, 778 terror suspects have passed through the prison.
Source: Agence France Presse
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