Mutasim can help advance peace talks: official

KABUL leader Agha Jan Mutasim could play a vital role in pushing the nascent peace process forward, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Monday.

The ministry’s spokesman Shakaib Mustaghni told reporters in Kabul Mutasim was an Afghan and restrictions on his movement had been lifted by the UAE.

Mutasim was confined to his home in the gulf nation by police, said a government official, who travelled with the Taliban’s former fiancé minister on a Kabul-bound flight from Dubai two days ago.

The official said Mutasim had been released from house arrest and had reached Kabul from Dubai.

Mutasim brought at least 16 current and former Taliban commanders together with Afghan peace negotiators in Dubai last year.

But the Taliban’s Quetta Shura based in Pakistan later said the Dubai meeting did not represent the Taliban.

Mutasim, once a close aide to the Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, was a finance minister during the hard-line regime.

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