Taliban Arrests Have Halted Early Talks, Former Envoy Says.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- The former top United Nations official in Afghanistan said that recent arrests of high-ranking Taliban figures by Pakistan had severed important secret communications between the Taliban and the West meant to foster peace negotiations. Kai Eide, the former special representative in Afghanistan for the United Nations secretary general, told the BBC in an interview broadcast on Friday that, for the past year, the United Nations had been quietly involved in early discussions with the Taliban in Dubai. He said those talks were upended by the arrests of senior Taliban leaders, including the group's second in command, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, in February. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]