Former Afghan President Karzai Meets With Taliban

A former President of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai met with the Taliban on Wednesday to discuss setting up a government.

Taliban commander Anas Haqqani, a senior leader of the Haqqani Network – a militant Taliban faction that overtook Kabul Sunday – sat down with the former leader.

Karzai, the dominant political figure in Afghanistan following the 2001 US invasion, was accompanied by his former government’s main peace envoy, Abdullah Abdullah, according to a Taliban official who declined to be identified.

The former president, who served as leader from 2001 to 2014, was stepping up to promote a peaceful transfer of power after President Ashraf Ghani abandoned his post and fled to the United Arab Emirates amid the resurgent Taliban takeover.