Colombia's FARC rebels asked for the United States to join its peace talks with the Colombian government, saying on Friday it would speed up the process because Washington was making all the important decisions anyway. The Colombian government and the U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to the request, which was likely to be rejected by the Colombian government on the grounds of national sovereignty. "We are discussing a matter of interest for the United States," Ivan Marquez, head of the FARC's negotiating team in Havana, told reporters before entering the latest round of talks. "Who is really determining what happens or not here is the U.S. government, so we would like to speak with the government of the United States... We would reach an understanding much quicker," Marquez said. For the past 15 months Cuba has hosted talks aimed at ending a half-century guerrilla conflict, the longest in Latin America, which has claimed some 200,000 lives and displaced millions more. Norway has participated in the talks as a so-called facilitator. The FARC, which stands for Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. criticized an encounter this week between the United States and Colombia in which it said Colombian Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon met with the U.S. State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency. Reuters has not confirmed whether such a meeting took place. -- SPA 21:10 LOCAL TIME 18:10 GMT تغريد
