Taliban Guantanamo inmates agree Qatar transfer: Kabul

KABUL: Five Taliban inmates at Guantanamo Bay have agreed to be transferred to Qatar, in a move that would meet a key demand of the insurgents and likely ease the path to peace talks, Kabul said Sunday.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government has also dropped its opposition to the transfer as it seeks to boost reconciliation efforts, a spokesman for the president said.

But the Pentagon said it had not yet made a decision on the transfer of the detainees from the US military prison in Cuba.

The inmates told a visiting Afghan delegation they were willing to be transferred to the Middle East state, and it was now up to Washington whether they were sent, said Aimal Faizi, Karzai's spokesman.

Faizi told AFP that the Afghan national security council representatives met the prisoners at Guantanamo, and Kabul had also sought assurances about the conditions in which they would be transferred.

"Our responsibility was to make sure they would not be transferred as hostages," Faizi said. He added that Kabul had dropped its previous opposition "for the sake of peace".

Once in Qatar, the inmates would be reunited with their families, he said.

However, Pentagon spokesman Todd Breasseale told AFP that a decision was yet to be taken.

"Any decision to transfer a detainee from Guantanamo would be undertaken in accordance with US law and in consultation with the Congress," he said.

The Taliban had demanded in talks with the US that the detainees be sent to Qatar, as they announced plans earlier this year to set up a political office in the Middle East state, in a move seen a precursor to peace talks.

But Kabul initially raised strong objections to the proposal. While the Afghan government backed the prisoners being taken out of Guantanamo, they wanted them transferred directly to Afghanistan. (AFP)