Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai said Saturday that he personally held peace talks recently with the insurgent faction Hizb-i-Islami, appearing to assert his own role in a US-led bid for negotiations to end the country's decade-long war. Karzai made the announcement hours before he was to meet with American special representative Marc Grossman to discuss progress and plans for bringing the Taliban insurgency into formal talks for the first time. “Recently, we met with a delegation from Hizb-i-Islami ... and had negotiations,” Karzai told a meeting of the Afghan parliament, adding, “We are hopeful that these negotiations for peace continue and we will have good results.” Meanwhile, the US envoy said in a statement: “The United States stands ready to assist in any way we can an Afghan-led reconciliation process to find a peaceful end to this conflict.” “I look forward to calling on President Karzai and discussing next steps.” Grossman's visit comes in the wake of an announcement by the Taliban that it planned to open a political office in Qatar ahead of talks with Washington on ending Afghanistan's 10-year war. A US official said that if Karzai was agreeable, the talks could open within weeks. Hizb-i-Islami is a radical militia that controls territory in Afghanistan's northeast and launches attacks against US forces from Pakistan.
