US denies Holbrooke meeting Taleban & Hizb leaders

US today dismissed media reports that representatives of Af-Pak Special Envoy Richard Holbrooke recently met leaders of the Afghan Taliban and Hizb-i-Islami to discuss formation of a national government.
A State Department official said special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, SRAP, did not meet with Taliban leaders. The two individuals mentioned in recent news articles do not represent SRAP in anyway. He made the statement while responding to a question about reports in West Asia media that two representatives of Holbrooke met leaders of Afghan Taliban.
According to the reports, Michael Simbal of Holand and George Daxoin from Britain, representing Holbrooke, held meetings with the activists of Jamaat-ud-Dawa for Quran and Sunnah alias Salfi Taliban in Islamabad and Peshawar in August.
The Obama Administration has repeatedly asserted that any reconciliation process in Afghanistan has to be lead by that country itself.

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