Ashraf Ghani offers Taliban local office - media

Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani offered the Taliban the possibility of opening an office in Afghanistan but the proposal was swiftly spurned by the group that is determined to keep his government out of accelerating peace talks.

Ghani has expressed alarm at the Taliban shutting his administration out of negotiations with the United States as well as recent Moscow talks with Afghan opposition politicians, and repeated earlier offers to give the group a secure official address to aid any future diplomacy between the two sides.

“If the Taliban want an office, I will give it to them in Kabul, Nangarhar or Kandahar by tomorrow,” the Afghan leader said.

“We will bring a lasting and honorable peace to the country,” Reuters cited Ghani as saying.