Saturday, June 18, 2011

Afghanistan's Karzai: US 'in peace talks with Taliban' - by Paul Wood - 18 June 2011

An Afghan policeman helps a wounded man away from the site of an attack at a Kabul police station, 18 June 2011 
The comments came hours before an attack on a police station, for which the Taliban claimed responsibility.

The US is engaged in talks with the Taliban, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said, in the first high-level confirmation of US involvement.

Mr Karzai said that "foreign military and especially the US itself" were involved in peace talks with the group.
Hours later, suicide bombers attacked a Kabul police station, killing two.

Earlier this month, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said there could be political talks with the Taliban by the end of this year.

The US is due to start withdrawing its 97,000 troops from Afghanistan in July.

It aims to gradually hand over all security operations to Afghan security forces by 2014.
 
Summer of fighting:
"In the course of this year, there have been peace talks with the Taliban and our own countrymen," Mr Karzai told a Kabul news conference on Saturday.

"Peace talks have started with them already and it is going well. Foreign militaries, especially the United States of America, are going ahead with these negotiations."
 
Analysis It's always been assumed that the US is reaching out directly to the Taliban, but this is the first high-level official confirmation.

The exact identity of the Americans' negotiating partner is not known whether they are talking to a go-between or to somebody with authority.

Neither is it known what is on the table: The assumption is that these are talks about talks rather than something more substantive.

No one should expect quick results from whatever contacts may be taking place. The prediction from all sides - Nato, the Afghan government and the Taliban itself - is for another summer of hard fighting ahead, and probably many more summers after that.

He gave no details as to whether the discussions involved Taliban officials with US authorities, or a go-between.

Shortly after the announcement, at least two suicide bombers attacked a police station near the financial ministry in the Afghan capital. The Taliban has claimed responsibility.

Mohammad Ayub Salangi, Kabul's police chief, told the BBC two police officers had been killed in the attack, which was ongoing.

''A group of suicide attackers got inside police district one," he said. "We have surrounded the area.''

An interior ministry spokesman said there were four attackers, one of whom blew himself up, two of whom were killed by police, while a fourth was still fighting.

Finance ministry employees said the ministry was under lockdown.

"We can hear sporadic gunshots," one employee told the BBC. "Guards at the front of the ministry have also fired at attackers who wanted to get inside the ministry."

Meanwhile, insurgents attacked two convoys supplying Nato troops in the eastern province of Ghazni, police said: Four Afghan security guards escorting the trucks were reportedly killed by roadside bombs.
 
Sanctions list split:
The Taliban's official position regarding peace talks is that it will only negotiate once international forces leave Afghanistan, and that it will only talk to the Afghan government.
Colonel Richard Kemp: "There is no prospect for successful peace talks with the Taliban"
Diplomats have previously spoken of preliminary talks being held by both sides in the continuing conflict.
The US has yet to comment on Mr Karzai's statement.

The UK said it supported "Afghan-led efforts to reconcile and reintegrate members of the insurgency who are prepared to renounce violence, cut links with terrorist groups, and accept the constitution".

"In view of the death of Osama Bin Laden it is time for the Taliban/insurgency to positively engage in the political process," said a statement from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Colonel Richard Kemp, a former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, said there was currently no prospect for successful peace talks with Taliban.

"The only possibility that could happen is if they as a movement are defeated and there's no prospect of that happening in the near future."

He said the objective of international forces in Afghanistan should be to encourage malleable elements of the Taliban to split away from the hard-core leadership of Mullah Mohammad Omar, thereby weakening the group.

On Friday, the UN split a sanctions blacklist for the Taliban and al-Qaeda, to encourage the Taliban to join reconciliation efforts.

Before now, both organisations have been handled by the same UN sanctions committee.

The UN Security Council said it was sending a signal to the Taliban that now is the time to join the political process.

The US Ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, said in a statement that the move sent "a clear message to the Taliban that there is a future for those who separate from al-Qaeda, renounce violence and abide by the Afghan constitution".

The Taliban ruled Afghanistan before being driven from power by US-backed forces in 2001.
It had sheltered al-Qaeda and its leader Osama Bin Laden.
BBC News 

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