AFGHAN OFFICIALS HAVE SAID the man posing as a Taliban leader during peace negotiations with Afghan officials was an impostor.
The man pretended to be one of the Taliban’s most senior commanders, Mullah Akthar Mohammad Mansour, and met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and NATO officials.
NATO flew the man on British military aircraft to Kabul for meetings with Afghan officials, according to the Washington Post.
The AP reports that Karzai is attempting to limit the damage of the revelation by claiming the story is propaganda, and denying that he ever met with the man.
Karzai said: “Don’t accept this news from the foreign press regarding meetings with the elders of the Taliban because most of them are propaganda”.
The man was allegedly paid to attend the peace talks. One Western diplomat told the New York Times: “It’s not him [Mansour]. And we gave him a lot of money”.
If the claims are confirmed, the revelation could seriously damage the Aghan government’s efforts to find a political resolution to the nine-year war. US officials said they and and other NATO governments had helped facilitate the talks by providing transport and security for participants.
The New York Times reports that how the man was identified as a fraud is not yet clear.
Some Afghan and US officials have speculated that he may have been a Taliban agent, or may simply have been an opportunist who wanted the money.
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