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Kerry calls Karzai to defuse tension over Taliban Kerry calls Karzai to defuse tension over Taliban
(about 1 hour later)
US Secretary of State John Kerry has spoken by phone with Afghan President Hamid Karzai to try to defuse tension, an Afghan government spokesman says. US Secretary of State John Kerry has spoken by phone with Afghan President Hamid Karzai to try to defuse tensions, an Afghan spokesman has told the BBC.
Washington and Kabul had disagreed over the opening of a Taliban office in Qatar and peace talks with the Taliban. Washington and Kabul had disagreed over a new Taliban office in Qatar.
The Afghan president had earlier said any peace talks with the Taliban must be "Afghan-led". But the BBC has learned that Mr Karzai may now be willing to continue security talks with the US, which he had suspended in protest over the office.
In protest, Mr Karzai had said he would suspend talks with the US about security after Nato leaves in 2014. Mr Karzai said the opening of the building contradicted earlier US security guarantees to his government.
The Taliban premises in Qatar opened on Tuesday, somewhat overshadowing the fact that, on the same day, Nato handed over security for the whole of Afghanistan to the Afghan government for the first time since the Taliban were ousted in 2001.
Mr Karzai said in a statement on Wednesday that the office was "totally contradictory to the guarantees that were made by the USA to Afghanistan".
His officials said he objected to a Taliban flag flying from the building, and also the name given to the building - the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
He said Afghan negotiators would stay away from the Qatar talks until "foreign powers" allowed the process to be run by Afghans - and also stay away from the latest round of security talks with the US on the American presence in Afghanistan after Nato leaves in 2014.
But Mr Karzai's spokesman now says Mr Kerry has informed the Afghans that the Taliban office is removing the flag, and that the sign announcing the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan will be replaced by one saying Bureau of Peace Talks.
The official added that President Karzai told Mr Kerry that once he saw Afghan and international networks showing evidence that these changes had been made, he would "be ready to keep the wheels rolling" on the process.
A meeting will be held in Kabul on Thursday to discuss the next steps.