KABUL, Afghanistan - The Afghan government's newly formed peace council wants Saudi Arabia to play a key role in efforts to reconcile with the Taliban and find a political resolution to the war.
Qiyamuddin Kashaaf, spokesman for the 70-member High Peace Council, said Thursday that Saudi Arabia would be a good place to hold any formal peace talks that develop from exploratory discussions the Afghan government is having with some high-ranking members of the Taliban. He says that if peace negotiations in Afghanistan are not successful, Saudi King Abdullah should intervene and take a leadership role in fostering talks.
Saudi Arabia once had close ties to the Taliban government that emerged victorious from Afghanistan's civil war in the early 1990s.
