U.S. negotiating with Taliban, Karzai confirms

[Guest guest]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/asia-pacific/us-negotiating-with-talib\

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U.S. negotiating with Taliban, Karzai confirms

susan sachs

KABUL— Globe and Mail Update

Published Saturday, Jun. 18, 2011 9:04AM EDT

Last updated Saturday, Jun. 18, 2011 11:23AM EDT

In a speech to Afghan students Saturday, President Hamid Karzai said approvingly

that the United States had opened talks with the Taliban on ending its 10-year

war against his government and foreign forces. " Peace talks have already started

with them and it is going well, " he said.

Mr. Karzai's statement goes far beyond what is usually said by western diplomats

familiar with the episodic, and sometimes embarrassing, efforts to open

negotiations with the Taliban. They have said talks are in their infancy, with

little feedback from the side of the insurgents to indicate that leaders of the

group are interested.

The Obama administration neither directly confirmed nor denied Mr. Karzai's

statement.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the U.S. has " consistently supported

an Afghan-led " peace process.

" Over the past two years, we have laid out our red lines for the Taliban: They

must renounce violence; they must abandon their alliance with al-Qaeda; and they

must abide by the constitution of Afghanistan, " Mr. Toner said. " This is the

price for reaching a political resolution and bringing an end to the military

actions that are targeting their leadership and decimating their ranks. "

Meanwhile, a suicide attack on a police station in the crowded centre of the

Afghan capital killed nine people Saturday and set off a gun battle near several

ministries and not far from the presidential palace.

The explosions and firefight erupted only hours after Mr. Karzai's statement.

The Taliban claimed credit for the Kabul attack, as it has for assassinations

over the past two months of Afghan officials, soldiers and police officers

across the country.

The Afghan Interior Ministry said five of the dead in the capital shoot-out and

bombing were civilians, three were police officers and one was an intelligence

agent.

Afghan security forces, along with Afghan government officials and ordinary

workers employed by the NATO-led coalition here, are increasingly the targets of

attacks by the Taliban and related insurgent groups.

In public statements taking credit for assassinations and bombings, the Taliban

dismiss the Afghan government as a " puppet " and demand the withdrawal of all

foreign troops.

The government's peace council, which includes former Taliban officials, has

argued that talks will go nowhere until the religious movement's leaders can

travel freely outside their sanctuaries in Pakistan.

A first step to meeting their demands came on Friday, when the United Nations

Security Council decided to set up separate sanctions lists for the Taliban and

al-Qaeda, whose members have long been linked on the same blacklist.

The Afghan government proposed that the names of some 18 of the 135 Taliban on

the list be removed altogether. But former Taliban officials say that those men

have long broken with the group and have no particular access to the secretive

leadership. Five of them are on Mr. Karzai's peace council.

One of the more notorious is Mohammed Qalamuddin, who headed the feared

religious police during the Taliban's five-year reign when men were beaten if

they did not go to prayers and women were regularly beaten for any infraction of

the regime's archaic restrictions.

Mr. Qalamuddin, who said he has been living " a simple life " in Kabul as a

religion teacher in the public schools, said getting off the blacklist will mean

nothing for him. " I don't need to travel the world, " he said in an interview,

adding that he also has no money in foreign banks that has been blocked.

" But the government should try to talk to the leadership of the Taliban, " he

said. " I'm hopeful there could be dialogue, god willing. "

The latest attack in Kabul, on the first day of the work week, broke a month

long period of relative calm in the city. The capital last experienced a

large-scale attack since May when a suicide bomber detonated his

explosive-filled vest up at a military hospital. Six medical students died in

that attack.

[Guest guest]

Any wonder they have been attacking heavily in the last few months, why IED's are way up as are regular attacks against military and civilian targets? The Taliban sees weakness and weakness invites attack. They probably also see the troubles with Pakistan and Russia and know that the US troops could be trapped in Afghanistan, soon to run out of supplies and be wiped out.

In a message dated 6/18/2011 12:16:27 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, no_reply writes:

U.S. negotiating with Taliban, Karzai confirms