Afghan President Hamid Karzai has met a senior delegation from the insurgent group Hezb-i-Islami, Karzai's office said on Monday, a first step toward a possible separate peace with a militant faction that rivals the Taliban. The meeting amounts to Karzai's first confirmed direct contact with the faction, one of the three main groups fighting his government and the US and NATO troops that support it. Although the talks appeared to be preliminary, the public acknowledgment of the meeting was itself a significant milestone after many months of furtive efforts to reach out. An eventual peace deal could signal a split in the insurgency and alter the balance of power on the ground as Karzai seeks to woo fighters off the battlefield while Western troops face off for a decisive year of combat with the Taliban. “I can confirm that a delegation of Hezb-i-Islami ... is in Kabul with a plan and has met with the president,” Karzai's spokesman, Waheed Omer, said. A spokesman for Hezb-i-Islami said it was the first time the group had sent senior envoys to Kabul for peace talks. They had brought a 15-point peace plan which includes a demand for withdrawal of foreign troops, said Haroun Zarghoun, spokesman for the group's fugitive leader, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. US President Barack Obama is sending thousands of extra troops this year for a stepped-up military campaign, while also announcing plans to begin withdrawing in mid-2011. Washington hopes Karzai's outreach programme, combined with a decisive year of combat, will prod insurgents to lay down their arms. Hekmatyar's Hezb-i-Islami has shared some of the aims of the Taliban, but has led a separate insurgency mainly in the east and pockets of the north of Afghanistan. In recent months Taliban fighters have pushed into Hezb-i-Islami strongholds, leading to clashes between the two groups two weeks ago. “Hezb-i-Islami is a very powerful and influential opposition group in Afghanistan and its readiness for peace talks with the government will certainly have an impact,” said Mohammad Qasim, a professor at Kabul University and expert on Afghan politics. “Their delegation meeting with the president on peace talks means there is a rift between the Taliban and Hezb-i-Islami.” The delegation is led by Qutbuddin Helal, a former prime minister and deputy to Hekmatyar, and includes Hekmatyar's son-in-law, Zarghoun said. “The main point of the plan is the withdrawal of all foreign forces from July this year, and that this is to be completed within six months,” Zarghoun said by Pakistan-based mobile phone. The plan, which is subject to negotiation, also calls for the current government to serve for six months and then stand down for new elections to be held next year, he said. Karzai has launched a high-profile effort to reach out to insurgents this year, and included a former Hezb-i-Islami member as the economy minister in his new cabinet in January. Zarghoun said the delegates might also meet US officials. However, US embassy spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said the United States had no plans to meet them.
