Rebel group (Hezb-i-Islami) rejects likely Afghan exile offer

Source: Reuters

(Reuters) - An Afghan guerrilla group has turned down a draft peace proposal by President Hamid Karzai's government offering insurgent leaders exile in third countries in an effort to end the nine-year-old war.

The Hezb-i-Islami (HIA) party led by a former premier Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, which runs a separate insurgency force from the Taliban against the government and NATO and U.S.-led forces, said the offer was "completely unacceptable and out of question".

An official for the party and member of its team which held an initial round of direct peace talks with Karzai in March, said the group still insisted on setting a withdrawal timetable for foreign troops before the start of any parley.

"The only way out of this imbroglio is the complete and unconditional withdrawal of the foreign occupiers from the country with a reasonable timetable which is already offered by HIA's leadership," Qareeb Rahman Saeed said. "Any other proposal other than this one, will be unreasonable and unjustifiable," he wrote in an email late on Tuesday to Reuters when asked for a reaction on the proposed plan.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64B1K420100512

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Frankly, if a pragmatist like Hekmatyar isn't willing to deal, an ideologically-inclined Taliban is even less likely. Karzai swings and misses, again.

"The only way out of this imbroglio is the complete and unconditional withdrawal of the foreign occupiers from the country with a reasonable timetable which is already offered by HIA's leadership," Qareeb Rahman Saeed said. "Any other proposal other than this one, will be unreasonable and unjustifiable," he wrote in an email late on Tuesday to Reuters when asked for a reaction on the proposed plan.

What does HIA have to gain from leaving? They're not afraid to die.