Islamabad, November 05: Washington is ready to spend a huge sum of money to start talks with the Taliban in Afghanistan, a former Pakistani lawmaker says.
Javed Ibrahim Paracha, a former member of Pakistan’s National Assembly said that top US diplomats contacted him in 2005 and offered him a huge sum of money to broker the talks.
“US officials had offered me 500,000 dollars in that meeting for mediating. I refused that offer and had asked US officials to first take permission from the government and corps commanders,” The Daily Times quoted Paracha, as saying.
Paracha is known for having contacts with the Taliban leadership.
The US has already planned to allocate a specific budget from its annual 680 billion dollar defense bill to the Taliban.
The bill contains a new provision that would pay the Taliban fighters who abandon their weapons.
—–Agencies