KABUL - The Taliban have refused US demands for a ceasefire before the release of Taliban prisoners from Guantanamo. Reports said that the US had pledged to transfer important Taliban figures from Guantanamo Bay to Qatar but now they are insisting on a ceasefire first.
The development comes as the BBC reports the Afghan government is planning to hold talks with the Taliban in Saudi Arabia.

The meeting in Saudi Arabia will be held in the coming weeks in advance of the establishment of a Taliban office in Qatar.
A senior Afghan government official told the BBC that talks will be convened in the region in addition to the establishment of a Taliban office in Qatar.

The Taliban previously refused to recognize President Karzai's government, calling it a stooge government.
For its part, the Afghan government had opposed a Taliban office in Qatar but later agreed to it.

A delegation of Taliban officials has arrived in Qatar to start negotiations with the United States, The Daily Telegraph reported.

The delegation is comprised of Mullah Omar's former secretary, Mullah Tayeb Agha; the Taliban's former Deputy Foreign Minister Shir Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai; the former Taliban Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Shahabuddin Delawar; and the Taliban's third secretary in Abu Dhabi.

A key official at the High Peace Council, Masood Stanekzai, told TOLOnews in an exclusive interview on Saturday that talks are continuing about the conditions needed to open the Taliban office in Qatar.
Mr Stanekzai stressed that peace talks can only be successful with the leadership of Afghans.

He said that the US special envoy to Afghanistan, Marc Grossman, during his recent visit to Kabul, reassured the Peace Council that the United States will support Afghans however it can during the peace talks.