Official: Taliban interested in ending war

WASHINGTON -- Reclusive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar wrote to President Barack Obama last year indicating an interest in talks key to ending the war in Afghanistan, current and former U.S. officials told The Associated Press.

The letter purportedly from Omar was unsigned. It was passed through a Taliban intermediary in July and intended for the White House. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the letter and its contents are part of sensitive diplomacy with a fighting force that still targets U.S. troops.

The previously undisclosed communication was considered authentic by people who saw it, but skeptical administration officials said they cannot determine it actually came from Omar.

The Obama administration did not directly respond to the letter, two officials said, although it has broadened contacts with Omar's emissaries since then.

Sources who described the letter did not disclose its contents, but one current and one former official said it addressed Taliban willingness to build trust with the United States.

One official said Omar complained that the United States had not done enough to establish good faith for negotiations, such as arranging the release of Taliban prisoners held in the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

An administration official would say only that the message represented views consistent with what Taliban emissaries had been telling U.S. officials during the clandestine meetings.

Those preliminary sessions opened the way for more formal talks that U.S. officials now publicly welcome.