In Iran, Taliban hold talks with anti-Taliban Afghan group

The Taliban say they have held talks with senior leaders of an anti-Taliban alliance, a meeting that took place over the weekend in neighboring Iran

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Afghanistan's new Taliban rulers held talks over the weekend with senior leaders of an anti-Taliban alliance, the Taliban said Monday. The meeting, held in Tehran, was the first of its kind, underscoring Taliban efforts to bring their former opponents into the fold.

During the meeting, the alliance leaders were told they could return to Afghanistan and were promised their safety would be guaranteed, Taliban-appointed foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said in a short video released Monday.

The alliance, known as the National Resistance Front, is led by Ahmed Massoud, the son of the anti-Taliban fighter Ahmad Shah Massoud, who was assassinated in 2001. The group coalesced after the Taliban swept into Kabul in mid-August as the Afghan government fled and Afghan forces offered little or no resistance to the Taliban takeover. Ahmed Massoud was joined by former governor of western Herat province, Ismail Khan.

Following the Taliban push into Kabul and capture of the Afghan capital on Aug. 15, in the last weeks of the chaotic U.S. and NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan, a smattering of anti-Taliban fighters fled north to the Panjshir Valley to set up a base there, vowing to fight the Taliban. Battles raged for several weeks before the Taliban overran the area.