US-Taliban peace deal collapses after Karzai refuses to go on: Report

According to the report, the deal called for 5 Taliban GITMO prisoners to be sent to house arrest in Qatar.

The US-Taliban peace deal, that was earlier reported to have reached a critical juncture, has “ultimately collapsed after Afghan President Hamid Karzai balked at its terms,” The Washington Post (WP) reported on Friday.

“It was the closest that the parties have come to genuine peace negotiations after nearly a year of talks,” an official was quoted in the WP report.

According to the report, “the deal called for the prisoners (from US detention at Guantanamo Bay) to be sent to house arrest in Qatar, where the Taliban planned to open an office.”

A senior Obama administration official was quoted in the report saying that “right now, things have stopped; everybody is taking a deep breath.” The official further said that contacts with the Taliban are expected to be re-established early in the new year.

The report said that “the potential transfer of prisoners was the result of at least a half dozen meetings this year between US representatives and a Taliban delegation headed by Tayyib Agha, an aide to Afghan Taliban leader Mohammad Omar.”

As per the WP report, the senior official said that they believe they are talking to the right people; people who are capable of negotiations.