Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid

epa01514525 A picture made available on 09 October 2008 shows Taliban militants standing guard as their spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid (not in picture) talks with a journalist in the mountains of Afghanistan volatile Helmand province a hotbed of Taliban militants, 07 October 2008. The Taliban spokesman said that the ongoing mediation of Saudi Arabia for resolving the conflicts between Taliban and Afghan government is being done without the consent of Taliban’s supreme leader Mullah Omar and they will not support the talks until 70,000 international forces withdraw from the country. Following two years of strategic stalemate in the military fronts, and mounting public opinion pressure in western countries which have soldiers in Afghanistan, to end the war, Afghan and western officials have joined a chorus to call for peace with militants. EPA/STRINGER