The Taliban was ready to hold peace negotiations with the Afghan government, a Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told Xinhua from an undisclosed place on Monday.
Responding to comments by Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Sunday, Ahmadi said the Taliban is in favor of solving Afghan problems through negotiations, which he said should be based on Islamic principle and Afghanistan's benefit.
Karzai said Sunday, "the door for negotiations with Taliban rebels was always open, but the Afghan government did not have their address or telephone number, so it was hard to negotiate with them."
But Ahmadi rejected what Karzai said and insisted that the Taliban was among the people and had an address.
He said the Taliban would like to hold peace talks with Afghan authorities as just it held negotiations with the South Korean government on 23 hostages recently.
However, Ahmadi said the Taliban has not to receive any formal proposals for peace negotiations from the Afghan government.
"If it receives the proposals, the Taliban would bring forward its conditions and demands for the talks," he added.
This is the first time that the Taliban publicly expressed its readiness to hold peace talks with the government.
The Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, but the regime was toppled down late 2001 when the U.S.-led Afghan War broke out in the country.
Over the past two years, Taliban militants showed strong resurgence in Afghanistan and launched numerous attacks against foreign troops and government targets.
Source: Xinhua
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