Talibs To Help Americans Establish Order in Afghanistan

Most likely, the idea of negotiations appeared in Washington, not in Kabul

Hamid Karzai's government has lost the final hope for a change. The situation in Afghanistan is still unstable. The presence of international peacemakers does not help to ease the situation, the financial help is not enough to change anything for the better either. Talibs are still conducting subversive activities in addition to the autocracy of local warlords (provincial governors currently). What can be done with all those problems? The Afghan government is incapable of handling them all. There is no point to count for peacemakers' help - they prefer not to leave their bases without an extreme need for it.

According to the Pakistani newspaper The News, Hamid Karzai's government has recently started negotiations with moderate Talib leaders who have not been implicated in bloody crimes against the Afghan nation. It was decided to conduct negotiations through former Foreign Minister in the Taliban government Abdul Wakil Mutawakil, who had been released from the American jail in Bagram base on the outskirts of Kabul. Negotiations have been started on the initiative of Talib leaders and they are still continuing.

Presidential spokesman Jawid Luddin has also confirmed the fact of contacts with the moderate leaders of Taliban. In an interview to journalists, Luddin said that several Taliban leaders had contacted the Afghan government and stated that they were prepared to cooperate.

It has been emphasized that Kabul is not intended to conduct negotiations with the Taliban officials implicated in the cooperation with al-Qaida. In general, it seems to be rather interesting: "moderate Talib leaders." Until recently, no one has ever heard anything about them. Now it turns out that they exist, although it is not clear, why they are called "moderate leaders."

It is worth mentioning here that the officials from the Afghan government say that Talibs have initiated negotiations. Kabul is demonstrating who controls the situation in the country (or at least pretends to do so). One shall assume, Americans are implicated in the matter as well. Indeed, it is hard to believe that they have released Abdul Wakil Mutawakil from jail so easily to let him help Hamid Karzai establish contacts with the "moderate leaders." Most likely, the idea to start negotiations appeared in Washington, not in Kabul. If they are successful, it will be possible to launch a large campaign about the "national reconciliation" in Afghanistan and to make it an accomplishment of the American administration. If nothing good happens - they will simply pronounce "moderate" Talibs extremists again and the subject of negotiations in Afghanistan will be quickly forgotten.