Afghan President Hamid Karzai, long a staunch advocate of peace talks with the Taliban, on Wednesday questioned whether the insurgent group was able to seek a political settlement and blamed Pakistan for fomenting instability. The Afghan president had met with Afghanistan's political and religious elite to discuss the future of peace negotiations after the assassination last week of the government's top peace envoy, former President Burhanuddin Rabbani.
Rabbani's killer was a suicide bomber posing as a reconciliation envoy sent by the Taliban's leadership council, and Karzai's response to the attack marked an apparent shift in stance from a leader who when pushing for negotiations has described the Taliban as errant "brothers". Karzai took a swipe at neighbouring Pakistan, saying it was clear the Taliban leadership was not independent enough to make its own decisions about how it conducted the war, and suggesting talks with Islamabad instead.