Rebel Coalition Won’t Split For Talks In Afghanistan

A coalition fighting Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers rejected Sunday any offers to hold separate negotiations between the Islamic regime and the coalition’s factions.

“If they talk, they have to talk to a united front,” said Abdullah, a spokesman for Ahmed Shah Massood, a former government defense chief and one of the three coalition leaders.

Last week, the Taliban held out the possibility of talks with Massood and Shiite Muslim leader Karim Khalilli in what was widely seen as a bid to split the opposition alliance, which also includes ethnic Uzbek warrior Malik Pahlawan.

The Taliban, which overran the capital, Kabul, last September, controls the southern two-thirds of Afghanistan, where they have imposed a strict brand of Islam.

Recently, fighting largely has stalemated. Only sporadic battles have erupted north of the capital and in a key region of eastern Afghanistan.

The coalition has said it would only agree to talks without conditions, while the Taliban had insisted that Massood, Khalilli and Pahlawan must first release all their prisoners.

But Friday, the Taliban said they would open talks with Massood and Khalilli - apparently without conditions - if Pahlawan refused to free as many as 3,000 prisoners.