Amid existing disagreements between the U.S. and Taliban representatives over the progress of peace talks, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhbai had proposed the a program to assassinate the leaders of Taliban in Qatar, it has been reported.

Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, made the offer to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during a meeting in mid-January this year, Al Jazeera reported, citing a report published in Middle East Eye (MEE) news website.

According to the informed sources quoted in the report, Al Nahyan had told Pompeo that Washington risked allowing Afghanistan to fall back into the hands of the “backward, bearded bad guys” and proposed hiring mercenaries to kill Taliban leaders to weaken the group’s negotiating position.

The sources further added that Pompeo was visibly taken aback by the offer, but said nothing.

This comes as UAE had supported US efforts to broker a peace deal with the Taliban, and hosted a first round of negotiations between the two sides late last year in Abu Dhabi.

However, the latest report suggests that Al Nahyan is believed to have been frustrated that subsequent rounds of negotiations were moved to Qatar’s capital, Doha, at the insistence of the Taliban, which has maintained a political office there since 2013.