The arrest of Taliban leaders has had a "negative impact" on peace talks between the Afghan government and the insurgents, a spokesman for President Hamid Karzai said Saturday.
The recent arrests in Pakistan of the Taliban's second-in-command, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, and others in the Islamists' hierarchy, slowed down Afghan government initiatives to broker peace, Siamak Hirawi told AFP.
"We confirm the negative impact of the arrests on the peace process that the Afghan government has initiated," said Hirawi, Karzai's deputy spokesman.
His was the first official confirmation from the Kabul government that there had been contact with the Taliban, with the intention of discussing an end to the insurgency now in its ninth year.
He also confirmed that the former UN envoy to Afghanistan, Kai Eide, had held peace talks with Taliban figures and said Eide had kept the Afghan government informed of his actions.
Eide, who stepped down from the UN post earlier this month, confirmed for the first time in a BBC interview on Friday that he had been holding talks with senior Taliban figures, starting around a year ago.
