UK blamed over Taliban impostor

Most Afghan or US officials have never set eyes on Taliban leaders, such as Mullah Omar

President Hamid Karzai’s chief of staff has said British authorities brought a fake Taliban commander into sensitive meetings with the Afghan authorities.

The British embassy refused to confirm or deny the remarks, made in an interview with the Washington Post.

A man described as Mullah Mansour, a senior Taliban commander, was reportedly taken to Kabul for a meeting with President Karzai himself.

Now it is claimed he was really a Pakistani shopkeeper from Quetta.

The impersonator is said to have disappeared after hundreds of thousands of dollars were paid to him for his co-operation in the process of Taliban reconciliation.

President Karzai’s office is blaming the British authorities for this debacle – telling the Washington Post the man was brought to the meeting by British diplomats.

A spokesman for the British embassy in Kabul said they did not comment on operational matters.

The Afghan government’s meetings with the Taliban – fake or otherwise – have been described as contacts rather than negotiations.

If there was indeed British involvement, the question is whether this was logistical support or something more active.

“If we are desperate to talk to the Taliban, the Taliban will think, ‘we are winning’,” said one Western official.

Full negotiations to end this conflict still seem a long way off – and the case of the Taliban impostor will not have helped matters.

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