Afghans deny regular talks with Taliban

KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan officials on Wednesday denied being in regular talks with Taliban leaders, in response to an AP report based on documents showing that the intelligence chief speaks by telephone with militant leaders nearly every day.

National Security Adviser Mohammed Haneef Atmar issued a statement saying the Afghan government seeks peace but that all negotiations are handled by the High Peace Council. Atmar did not respond to questions sent by email before the story was published, which his office requested when he was first contacted for comment.

In a separate statement, Afghanistan’s intelligence service denied its chief had contacts with Taliban leaders.

The AP report was based on documents describing the conversations that a senior Afghan security official showed the AP. The talks were held with Taliban leaders who were in Pakistan and the Gulf state of Qatar, where the Taliban maintain an office.

crossing Wednesday after a two-year closure, taking a step toward stabilizing an area devastated by Islamic State extremists and allowing for a resumption of vital trade.

Iraqi and Jordanian officials celebrated the reopening as another victory over the militant group, which has been pushed back by U.S-backed military offensives in northern and western Iraq over the past year.

Ending the closure “means we have told the world we are greater ... than any terrorist group,” Iraq’s interior minister, Qassim al-Araji, said in a ceremony on the Jordanian side of the border post.

Reviving cross-border traffic could help bring normalcy back to Iraq’s Anbar border province after years of heavy fighting to drive IS militants from its towns and cities. It would also give a boost to Jordan’s sluggish economy. Iraq is a key market for Jordan, and exports dropped by more than twothirds after the 2015 closure.