Taliban may agree to ceasefire: Report

The Taliban are determined to renounce the terrorist al-Qaeda group and are willing to negotiate over education for girls, the report published by the British think-tank Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) said on Monday.

The Afghan Taliban, however, are not willing to negotiate with Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s government because of the administration’s record of corruption, it added.

The report, entitled “Taliban Perspectives on Reconciliation”, presents interviews with four senior Taliban representatives about their approach to peace talks. The Taliban figures all declared their opposition to the Afghan constitution because, they said, it supported the Afghan president.

A former Taliban minister, one ex-Taliban deputy minister and founding member of the Taliban, one senior ex-mujahedeen commander and lead negotiator as well as one Afghan mediator who had negotiated with the Taliban were all interviewed for the report.

The primary view of all the four interviewees' was that any agreement with the Taliban would require the approval of the group’s leader Molla Mohammad Omar, according to the finding.

Yet, Michael Semple, one of the authors of the report, said the interviewees’ comments did not represent the dominant view of the militant group.

"We are not saying that this is some kind of poll that says three out of four Taliban members are in favour of a ceasefire," he said. "But there is a part of the movement who see there is no prospect of a military victory and so ceasefire would make sense. This is not the official line, but rather the outer fringe of Taliban thought. It's not mainstream yet."

The British think-tank's report, however, is at odds with the Taliban leader who said in mid-August that the Taliban would hold negotiations with Afghan factions after the pullout of US-led forces from Afghanistan.

In March, Taliban halted negotiations with the US over what they called US ambiguous stance. However, the US officials said Washington’s emphasis on the role of Afghanistan government in the talks was the main reason behind Taliban withdrawal from the negotiations.

The US invaded Afghanistan under the pretext of combating terrorism and toppled the Taliban regime.