Mohammed Tayeb, director-general of the Foreign Ministrys branch office in the Makkah region and the Kingdoms representative to the OIC, and Iranian Ambassador Hussein Sadeghi attended the talks, which took place in Jeddah.
U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the sensitive dialogue, expect the Taliban delegation to be led by Mohammed Tayeb al-Agha, a senior aide to Pakistan-based group leader Mohammad Omar, and representatives of the Talibans political council.
A breakthrough seemed near in 2011. Holbrookes successor, Marc Grossman, met secretly with Taliban representative Mohammed Tayeb al-Agha. They worked out a deal where the U.S. would release five Taliban prisoners and send them to Qatar. The Taliban in return would condemn international terrorism an