KABUL: Afghanistan’s former president has met with a senior leader of a powerful Taliban faction who was once jailed and whose group has been listed by the U.S. as a terrorist network.

Former President Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah, a senior official in the ousted government met with Anas Haqqani as part of preliminary meetings that a spokesman for Karzai said would would facilitate eventual negotiations with Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the top Taliban political leader.

The U.S. branded the Haqqani network a terrorist group in 2012, and its involvement in a future government could trigger international sanctions.

The Taliban have pledged to form an “inclusive, Islamic government,” although skeptics point to its past record of intolerance for those not adhering to its extreme interpretations of Islam.

Press Trust of India