Qatar Says Taliban Office Not for 'Islamic Emirate'
The Taliban office opened in Doha to facilitate peace talks does not carry the name of the "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan," as it appeared earlier, Qatar said on Wednesday.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai denounced as a provocation the use of the formal name of the Islamist movement's government from 1996 until it was toppled in 2001.
"The office that was opened in Doha yesterday is the political office of the Taliban in Afghanistan, and is not the political office of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan," Qatar's foreign ministry said, quoted by QNA state news agency.
"The official name agreed to open this office was the political office of the Taliban in Doha."
Taliban representatives and Qatari officials on Tuesday opened the office in Doha, in a ceremony that featured a large poster reading "the opening of the political office of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in Doha".
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told Agence France Presse that the office was intended "to open dialogue between the Taliban and the world".
Kabul lashed out on Wednesday at the U.S. efforts to broker a peace with the Taliban, suspending crucial talks with Washington and threatening to boycott prospective contacts with the group in Qatar.
Karzai's spokesman Aimal Faizi told AFP there was a "contradiction between what the U.S. government says and what it does regarding Afghanistan peace talks".
Officials said the row centered on the naming of the Taliban office.
"The opening of the Taliban office in Qatar, the way it was opened and messages it contained, contradicts the guarantees given by the U.S. to Afghanistan," a statement from Kabul said.
Source: Agence France Presse
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