Afghan warlord changes his conditions for peace with Kabul

FILE - In this Wednesday, June 26, 1996 file photo, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, center, passes in front of an honor guard in the Afghan capital of Kabul, Afghanistan. A representative of a notorious Afghan warlord says he has dropped a key condition for ending his war on the Afghan state and wants a peace treaty with Kabul. (AP Photo, File) (The Associated Press)

This image made from video released to the Associated Press during the week of Nov. 21, 2015 shows Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, now in his late 60s, in an undisclosed location. A representative of a notorious Afghan warlord says he has dropped a key condition for ending his war on the Afghan state and wants a peace treaty with Kabul. (AP photo via AP video, File) (The Associated Press)

In this March 17, 2016 photo, Amin Karim, right, an official of the Hezb-i-Islami Party, speaks during a press conference in Kabul, Afghanistan. According to Karim, the party's leader, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a notorious Afghan warlord who lives in hiding, has dropped a key condition for ending his war of more than 40 years with Kabul, no longer demanding that all foreign troops leave Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul) (The Associated Press)

A representative of a notorious Afghan warlord who lives in hiding says he has dropped his key condition for ending his war of more than 40 years with Kabul.

Amin Karim, an official of the Hezb-i-Islami Party, says its leader, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, is no longer demanding that all foreign troops leave Afghanistan. Last year, the warlord briefly came out of the shadows to set his conditions for peace that included the withdrawal of foreign forces.

Karim told The Associated Press on Tuesday that for Hekmatyar, the "departure of foreign troops is not a condition, it is a goal."

Hekmatyar is designated a "global terrorist" by the United States and blacklisted by the United Nations. He is widely believed to live in Pakistan, though his supporters say he is in Afghanistan.