Afghan Taliban to attend crisis group's conference in Doha

The Afghan Taliban say they will attend a conference organized by an international crisis group on resolving the war in Afghanistan The Taliban said Friday that representatives of their "political office" will attend the conference in Qatar's capital, Doha, organized by the Pugwash Council, a Nobel peace prize-winning group focused on resolving conflict.
The conference is "aimed at finding a solution to the conflict in Afghanistan," now in its 15th year. Javid Faisal, deputy spokesman for Afghanistan's Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, says there will be no government representatives at the gathering. Last year, a similar event organized by Pugwash was also attended by Afghan officials, though they came in a personal capacity and didn't represent the government. The Doha gathering is not linked to an ongoing four-country peace initiative.