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Summary
Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, says that we have halted mediation efforts between the Afghan government and the Taliban because the fundamentalist movement has refused to break ties with Al-Qaeda.Prince Saud al-Faisal spoke Saturday after a meeting with his Italian counterpart. Last February, Afghan President Hamid Karzai sent a small delegation of former Taliban members to Saudi Arabia to seek help in kick-starting talks with the Taliban. But the Saudis said the kingdom would not help unless the Taliban severed all ties with Osama bin Laden, a Saudi and his Al-Qaeda terror network. That is also a key demand of both the US and Afghanistan. The Taliban are unwilling to hold formal peace talks until the US agrees to a timetable to withdraw all foreign troops.
