A senior member of the Afghan High Peace Council has made a plea for Saudi Arabia to help negotiate peace among the war-torn nation’s warring factions.

Maulvi Muhammad Hassan, who describes himself as a moderate Taleban, is part of a large group of prominent Afghans invited to perform Haj this year by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah.

The group includes Abdul Rauf Guhari, Kabul University’s vice-chancellor, and Saeed Ahmad Fatimi, dean of Nangarhar University’s Shariah faculty.

In an exclusive interview with Arab News on Wednesday, Hassan said everyone inside and outside Afghanistan and in Pakistan, respects Saudi Arabia and its leadership.

“King Abdullah is revered by all Afghans,” he said. “We all see him as the leader of the entire Muslim world. He is the real Amir-ul-Momineen and we request him to bring all Afghans together for the sake of peace.”

Hassan, a diehard Pashtun from Zaboul in Helmand province, refused to be drawn on his close ties with the Taleban militia and its ideologue Mullah Omar. However, he confirmed that he is a product of a madrassa run by well-known Pakistani religious leader Maulana Sami-ul-Haq. Almost all the Taleban leaders and mid-level commanders graduated from Ul-Haq’s seminaries.

Despite repeated requests, Hassan refused to be photographed in line with the Taleban tradition of not taking pictures of people.

“I am a ‘darmiyani Taleban’ (moderate Taleban),” said Hassan. “The people of Afghanistan are fed up with war, they need peace, they deserve peace, and I am very hopeful that we will have peace in Afghanistan.”

He was optimistic because initiatives are under way to bring President Hamid Karzai’s government and the Taleban to the negotiating table. “Talks are taking place in France, in Qatar, on multiple fronts, all these are good indicators,” he said.

The Peace Council is a body of the Afghanistan Peace and Reintegration Program, appointed by Karzai to negotiate with elements of the Taleban. The council was initially chaired by Burhanuddin Rabbani, the former Afghan president, until his assassination in 2011. Rabbani’s son, Salahuddin, chairs the council now.

“On behalf of the Taleban, I assure the Saudi leadership that we will listen to and act upon whatever is said to us by King Abdullah,” he said. He said the Taleban has no connection with Al-Qaeda anymore. “We are beyond that,” he said. “This is a thing of the past.”

Hassan said most of the Afghan people have realized that no single faction can maintain peace in Afghanistan. “No one can claim victory — neither the government nor the Taleban,” he said. “Ninety percent of the people want the war to end, they have paid a heavy price and have seen the futility of it all.”

He said the Karzai government committed many mistakes. “Anybody who was associated with the Taleban were targeted and humiliated, and so they had to escape into the mountains; I myself was a victim,” he said. “The government has realized its mistakes.”

Reiterating his appeal to King Abdullah, he said: “He is a good man, good Muslim, good leader. May Allah help this sagacious leadership rule for 1,000 more years.

The Saudi leadership’s services to Islam, its adherence to Shariah and Islamic principles, its international profile and its political and diplomatic decisions on the world stage are exemplary and extraordinary.”

He said this was his first Haj. “It is the wish of every Afghan and every Muslim to come and visit this great Islamic Kingdom and see with our own eyes the greatest Islamic country of our times,” he said. “At Arafat, I prayed for King Abdullah and beseeched Allah to grant our leaders the same wisdom and leadership qualities.”