Warlord Meets Taliban Officials

The warlord who rules northern Afghanistan, Abdul Rashid Dostum, met for the first time with Taliban officials, agreeing to hold peace talks even as fighting raged north of the capital. A day earlier, Dostum met with members of Afghanistan’s ousted government, led by President Burhanuddin Rabbani. Rabbani’s government, meanwhile, offered an immediate cease-fire if the Taliban, an Islamic militia that ousted Rabbani and captured Kabul on Sept. 27, evacuates the capital and agrees to talks on a political settlement. Rabbani’s deputy foreign minister, Abdur Rahim Ghafourzai, made the offer during a U.N. Security Council meeting on Afghanistan in New York.