A former Taliban ambassador said on Monday that the militants sat with Afghan officials and Saudi King Abdullah over a religious meal in Saudi Arabia last month as the insurgency raged back home.

Abdul Salam Zaeef, the Taliban’s former ambassador to Pakistan, denied that the get-together could be construed as peace talks. But President Hamid Karzai has long called for negotiations with the Taliban, and the meeting could spur future initiatives.

U.S. State Department spokesman Robert Wood referred reporters to the Afghan or Saudi governments for comment on the alleged meeting in Saudi Arabia. A spokesman for Karzai’s office declined to comment.

The only way to peace is negotiation with each other. Killing each other will never resolve this issue and only brings more destruction and misery to their own people. There is nothing in this world that cannot be resolved through diaglouge if there is a strong will and commitment to do so.