Pakistan trying to broker Afghan deal

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

Stick to the topic. The next person to go off on an ethnic tangent will be banned.

 

[Ahmad]

Stick to the topic. The next person to go off on an ethnic tangent will be banned.

thanks alot. i have always admired the admin/mods team of this forum for their neutrality in a good degree. i am personally sick and tired of ethnic issues that some of the members bring in this forum about afghanistan. most of them clearly dont have the knowledge of the ground realities of afghanistan, they dont even have the knowledge of history of our problems and they judge everything wrongly and according to their ill informed minds. they most of the time insult ethnic groups in afghanistan which is clearly hurting. please be strict to apply this rule from now on.

cheers.

 

[BATMAN]

Good luck Pakistan for being tasked a job in which whole world with all their resorces have failed after 10 years long expensive struggel, and now you have to do this task.
what!!!... you Pakistanis ask for co-operation ... nah we, all of world union including UN will obstruct you in your task... but you have to keep doing more and give us solid results like delivering OBL...
What!!!! you have no money? Than tax your people more.
But when my people come to your state sell them tax free petrol and food.

 

[PashtunPak]

Report: Karzai holds secret talks with top militant
Al Jazeera: Pakistan officials join al-Qaida-linked Haqqani in Kabul meeting

msnbc.com staff and news service reports
updated 6/27/2010 12:51:25 PM ET

KABUL — Afghan President Hamid Karzai has held face-to-face talks with Sirajuddin Haqqani, leader of a particularly brutal militant group with ties to al-Qaida, Al Jazeera reported on Sunday.

The presidential office reportedly denied that any meeting took place between Karzai and the Haqqani network, a group high on the CIA's hit list that is believed to have been behind some of the most sophisticated attacks across Afghanistan.

Pakistan's army chief and the head of the country's intelligence services are thought to have accompanied Haqqani to the talks, sources told Al Jazeera. Pakistan's intelligence and military officials have long been thought to foster close links with members of the Taliban and other militant groups working in Afghanistan.

The reports have fuelled speculation that Pakistan is trying to forge a deal that would safeguard its interests in Afghanistan, Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr said from Kabul.


Pakistan's neighbor and arch-rival India accuses Islamabad of supporting militant groups in Afghanistan and India's part of Kashmir. India's presence in Afghanistan has grown dramatically since the Pakistan-supported Taliban government was toppled in late 2001.

Haqqanis irreconcilable?

On Wednesday, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said that while Pakistan has an important role in brokering talks between Afghan militant factions and Karzai's government, the Haqqanis were probably irreconcilable with the Afghan government and unlikely to give up their al-Qaida ties.

"We see Pakistan as a partner in fighting violent extremism," Hague told reporters during a trip to Pakistan's capital Islamabad on Wednesday.

He declined to criticize Pakistan for allegations that its intelligence service has deep, active links with the Haqqanis and other elements of the Afghan Taliban.

The U.S. and its allies are struggling to shore up confidence in Kabul that the war strategy is on track. After more than eight years of war, the Taliban is resurgent and many Afghans are weary of the ongoing insecurity and pervasive government corruption.

The top American military officer, Adm. Mike Mullen, flew to Afghanistan on Saturday to assure Karzai that the new Afghan war commander, Gen. David Petraeus, would pursue the policies of his predecessor, including efforts to reduce civilian casualties.

Petraeus is taking over from Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who was relieved of his command by President Barack Obama after he and his aides were quoted in Rolling Stone magazine making disparaging remarks about top administration officials.

Violence has been on an upswing in the volatile south in recent weeks, with NATO deaths reported daily.

NATO announced Sunday that more than 600 Afghan and international troops were battling al-Qaida and Taliban forces in the eastern province of Kunar, which borders Pakistan. Three members of the allied force were killed in the fighting, including two Americans, a military statement said.

June has become the deadliest month of the war for NATO troops with at least 93 killed, 56 of them American. For U.S. troops, the deadliest month was October 2009, with a toll of 59 dead.

Taliban attacks against those allied with the government or NATO forces have also surged. In the latest such violence, the headmaster of a high school in eastern Ghazni was beheaded by militants on Saturday, the Education Ministry said. A high school in the same district — Qarabagh — was set on fire the same day.


Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Report: Karzai holds secret talks with top militant - World news - South and Central Asia - Afghanistan - msnbc.com

 

[SpArK]

Pakistan's plan on Afghan peace leaves U.S. wary​

Pakistan's plan on Afghan peace leaves U.S. wary - San Jose Mercury News

President Barack Obama and the director of the CIA both reacted with skepticism Sunday about the prospects for an Afghanistan peace deal pushed by Pakistan between the Afghan government and some Taliban militants.

While Obama said a political solution to the conflict was necessary and suggested elements of the Taliban insurgency could be part of negotiations, he said any such effort must be viewed with caution. The CIA director, Leon Panetta, was even more forceful in expressing his doubts.

"We have seen no evidence that they are truly interested in reconciliation, where they would surrender their arms, where they would denounce al-Qaida, where they would really try to become part of that society," Panetta said on ABC's "This Week."

Acknowledging that the U.S.-led counterinsurgency effort was facing unexpected difficulty, Panetta said the Taliban and their allies had little motive to contemplate a power-sharing arrangement in Afghanistan.
Obama, speaking later after the Group of 20 meeting in Toronto, noted that as the Afghanistan war approached its 10th anniversary, it was the longest foreign war in U.S. history, and that "ultimately as was true in Iraq, so will be true in Afghanistan, we will have to have a political solution."

As for Pakistan's effort to broker talks, Obama added: "I think it's too early to tell. I think we have to view these efforts with skepticism but also with openness. The Taliban is a blend of hard-core ideologues, tribal leaders, kids that basically sign up because it's the best job available to them," he said, suggesting that some Taliban could be part of negotiations.


Panetta acknowledged that the administration's counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan, based in part on the deployment of 30,000 more U.S. troops, was off to a troubled start, though he insisted it was making progress.

Panetta admitted that despite the CIA's aggressive campaign against al-Qaida in Pakistan's tribal areas — primarily using missiles fired from drone aircraft — that the hunt for Osama bin Laden had made little progress. He said the last precise information on the Qaida leader's whereabouts came in "the early 2000s."
On a separate issue, Panetta said that the CIA had no choice but to hire the company once known as Blackwater for $100 million to provide security in Afghanistan.

Panetta said the company, now known as Xe Services, underbid others by $26 million and that a CIA review concluded that the contractor had cleaned up its act.
Blackwater guards are accused of opening fire on unarmed civilians in Baghdad in 2007, killing 17 people. A federal grand jury has indicted five Blackwater officials on conspiracy weapons and obstruction of justice charges.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

 

[SpArK]

U.S. Pushes Back on Pakistan Offer​

U.S. Pushes Back on Pakistan Offer - WSJ.com


WASHINGTON—Central Intelligence Agency Director Leon Panetta said he has seen no information indicating that any hard-line Taliban factions or other insurgent groups based in Pakistan were prepared to reconcile with Afghanistan's government if the U.S. were to end its military campaign in the tribal regions that link the two countries.

Pakistan's military has been pressing the U.S. to allow Islamabad to try to bring some hard-line insurgent groups based in its territory, particularly the Haqqani Network, into a coalition Afghan government, according to U.S. and Pakistani officials.

The Pakistanis argue that Afghanistan can't maintain a stable central government in Kabul without the inclusion of leading Taliban factions and the Haqqani Network, led by Afghan insurgent commander Sirajuddin Haqqani and seen as the closest of the Pakistan-based militant groups to al Qaeda. Pakistan's army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, has said his military can deliver these groups, according to these officials.

Mr. Panetta, speaking Sunday on ABC's "This Week," said the CIA's own intelligence has provided no evidence that these Pakistan-based insurgents "are truly interested in reconciliation, where they would surrender their arms, where they would denounce al Qaeda, where they would truly try to become part of that society."



Unless they're convinced that the United States is going to win and they're going to be defeated, I think it's very difficult to proceed with a reconciliation that's meaningful," he said.

Addressing al Qaeda, Mr. Panetta said the U.S.'s military presence in the tribal areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan has left the group's leadership in its weakest state since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist strikes on the U.S.

U.S. officials have alleged that the Haqqani Network has cooperated with Pakistan's main spy agency, the directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, to conduct terrorist strikes on India's Kabul embassy and other properties inside Afghanistan. Pakistan has denied such charges. U.S. officials also believe the Haqqani Network was involved in the bombing of a CIA base in the eastern Afghanistan province of Khost.

U.S. intelligence officials said they sought out Mr. Haqqani's father, Jalaluddin Haqqani, in the months after the Sept. 11 attacks to see if he could be brought into an Afghan government. The CIA cooperated closely in the 1980s with the senior Mr. Haqqani, then a senior mujahedeen commander, to challenge the Soviet military occupation of Afghanistan. The Bush administration ultimately concluded that the Haqqanis had grown too close to al Qaeda to reconcile with Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government.

Mr. Panetta said on Sunday that there were at most 100 al Qaeda fighters operating inside Afghanistan. But he acknowledged that the Taliban has strengthened in some areas of Afghanistan during the 18 months that President Barack Obama has been in office. He said the U.S. continued to face a tough battle in Afghanistan, and that Washington needed Mr. Karzai's administration to run the government with greater competency.

"I think the Taliban obviously is engaged in greater violence right now…They're going after our troops. There's no question about that," Mr. Panetta said. "In some ways they are stronger, but in some ways, they are weaker as well."

The CIA director also acknowledged that the trail of al Qaeda's commander, Osama bin Laden, has largely gone cold. He said the U.S. has had no new, hard intelligence on the Saudi terrorist's location since 2003, with the U.S. assuming that he continued to be based in Pakistan's tribal area.

"That's all we know, that he's located in that vicinity," Mr. Panetta said. "The terrain is very difficult. He obviously has tremendous security around him."

Separately, Mr. Panetta confirmed that the CIA has retained a controversial private security firm—Xe Services LLC, formerly known as Blackwater—to provide security services in Afghanistan. The contract to protect CIA installations in Afghanistan, reported by the Washington Post to be worth $100 million, is in addition to a separate contract Xe has with the State Department to protect U.S. officials in that country.

Blackwater was involved in a series of controversial incidents, including a deadly shootout in Baghdad in 2007 that claimed the lives of Iraqi civilians and became a political liability for the U.S. government. Mr. Panetta defended the agency's decision to retain the security firm, saying it had underbid rivals by about $26 million.

U.S. officials late Sunday said they couldn't confirm Arab media reports that President Karzai was set to meet members of the Haqqani Network. But one U.S, official said he believed contacts were being made.

"Something is going on with Haqqanis," said the official. "How far along it is not clear."

—Nathan Hodge contributed to this article.

 

[Donatello]

How about USA gets the heck out of there eh? I mean, they have lost to Taliban badly. Every week their men are dying for no apparent reason.

Pakistan or not, i doubt if anyone gives a damn about USA success in Afghanistan.

 

[ahmed_naj]

UK general says Taliban talks should begin 'soon' - World news - South and Central Asia - Afghanistan - msnbc.com

LONDON — The head of the British Army said Sunday he believes that talks with the Taliban should begin "pretty soon."

U.S. officials have expressed skepticism about now being the right time to talk to the Taliban leadership, because the insurgents believe they are winning.

Gen. Sir David Richards said in an interview with the BBC that his position was "purely a private view," and that he didn't know when any talks could begin. But the former commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan said he saw no barrier to starting them quickly.

"If you look at any counterinsurgency campaign throughout history there's always a point at which you start to negotiate with each other, probably through proxies in the first instance — and I don't know when that will happen," Richards said. "I think there's no reason why we shouldn't be looking at that sort of thing pretty soon.

"But at the same time you have got to continue the work we are doing on both the military, governance and development perspectives to make sure that they don't think that we are giving up. It's a concurrent process and both equally important."

Asked if it would be palatable to Britain's American allies to talk to the Taliban without having weakened them militarily, Richards said on "one level, the tactical level, the lower military level, we need to continue to make the Taliban feel that they are being punished for what they are doing in a military sense, so that needs to continue. But whether we can turn that into some sense of strategic defeat, I'm less certain."

The Obama administration says it supports efforts to welcome back any militants who renounce violence, cut ties with al-Qaida and recognize and respect the Afghan constitution, but it is keeping details of its position closely held

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said it was premature to expect senior members of the Taliban to reconcile with the government. He said until the insurgents believe they can't win the war, they won't come to the table. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has said she's highly skeptical that Taliban leaders will be willing to renounce violence.

It's been a deadly month for British forces in Afghanistan, who are mainly focused in the restive southern Helmand province. Since the beginning of June, 20 British soldiers have died — nine in the last week alone — bringing the total personnel killed since the beginning of operations in 2001 to 308.

Prime Minister David Cameron has said he wants British troops out of the country by the time of Britain's next election, which must be held by 2015. And at a global summit held in Toronto, leaders of the leading industrial economies endorsed a five-year exit timetable for Afghanistan.

Richards predecessor, Gen. Sir Richard Dannatt, said the Taliban needs to be pushed to ensure they don't step back — and then surge forward once the international community departs.

"We must put maximum pressure on to succeed, so that the Taliban don't have that kind of option to say, 'We'll sit them out for five years, ten years or whatever,'" Dannatt told the BBC. "And although people quite rightly say 'Well, we've been in Afghanistan now since 2001,' actually this major operation that we're involved in began in 2006.

"So I think to put maximum effort into it now, to deny the Taliban the option of sitting us out, so that we've effectively achieved our aim — made Afghanistan secure enough for themselves, secure enough for our purposes, stop being a failed state or ungoverned space — that's critical. That's where the effort's got to go."

 

[FlyingEagle]

After a big lost now they want a talk................. US had to think before the start of this "War".......War is not the solution....... Chalo dair ay daost ay..........

Regards,
FE

 

[jin]

Ok then what else option US has to deal with Taliban?

We wish US or ISAF should continue to eliminate them, but can they do it ?

They must be thankfull to Pakistan if succeed in bringing an end of this war by any way.

 

[BelligerentPacifist]

...Every week their men are dying for no apparent reason...

The'd be dying for a VERY apparent reason - they're in the theatre of a war they initiated!

 

[GUNNER]

U.S. Pushes Back on Pakistan Offer


JAY SOLOMON

WASHINGTON—Central Intelligence Agency Director Leon Panetta said he has seen no information indicating that any hard-line Taliban factions or other insurgent groups based in Pakistan were prepared to reconcile with Afghanistan's government if the U.S. were to end its military campaign in the tribal regions that link the two countries.

Pakistan's military has been pressing the U.S. to allow Islamabad to try to bring some hard-line insurgent groups based in its territory, particularly the Haqqani Network, into a coalition Afghan government, according to U.S. and Pakistani officials.

The Pakistanis argue that Afghanistan can't maintain a stable central government in Kabul without the inclusion of leading Taliban factions and the Haqqani Network, led by Afghan insurgent commander Sirajuddin Haqqani and seen as the closest of the Pakistan-based militant groups to al Qaeda. Pakistan's army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, has said his military can deliver these groups, according to these officials.

Mr. Panetta, speaking Sunday on ABC's "This Week," said the CIA's own intelligence has provided no evidence that these Pakistan-based insurgents "are truly interested in reconciliation, where they would surrender their arms, where they would denounce al Qaeda, where they would truly try to become part of that society."

"Unless they're convinced that the United States is going to win and they're going to be defeated, I think it's very difficult to proceed with a reconciliation that's meaningful," he said.

Addressing al Qaeda, Mr. Panetta said the U.S.'s military presence in the tribal areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan has left the group's leadership in its weakest state since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist strikes on the U.S.

U.S. officials have alleged that the Haqqani Network has cooperated with Pakistan's main spy agency, the directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, to conduct terrorist strikes on India's Kabul embassy and other properties inside Afghanistan. Pakistan has denied such charges. U.S. officials also believe the Haqqani Network was involved in the bombing of a CIA base in the eastern Afghanistan province of Khost.

U.S. intelligence officials said they sought out Mr. Haqqani's father, Jalaluddin Haqqani, in the months after the Sept. 11 attacks to see if he could be brought into an Afghan government. The CIA cooperated closely in the 1980s with the senior Mr. Haqqani, then a senior mujahedeen commander, to challenge the Soviet military occupation of
Afghanistan. The Bush administration ultimately concluded that the Haqqanis had grown too close to al Qaeda to reconcile with Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government.

Mr. Panetta said on Sunday that there were at most 100 al Qaeda fighters operating inside Afghanistan. But he acknowledged that the Taliban has strengthened in some areas of Afghanistan during the 18 months that President Barack Obama has been in office. He said the U.S. continued to face a tough battle in Afghanistan, and that Washington needed
Mr. Karzai's administration to run the government with greater competency.

"I think the Taliban obviously is engaged in greater violence right now…They're going after our troops. There's no question about that," Mr. Panetta said. "In some ways they are stronger, but in some ways, they are weaker as well."

The CIA director also acknowledged that the trail of al Qaeda's commander, Osama bin Laden, has largely gone cold. He said the U.S. has had no new, hard intelligence on the Saudi terrorist's location since 2003, with the U.S. assuming that he continued to be based in Pakistan's tribal area.

"That's all we know, that he's located in that vicinity," Mr. Panetta said. "The terrain is very difficult. He obviously has tremendous security around him."

Separately, Mr. Panetta confirmed that the CIA has retained a controversial private security firm—Xe Services LLC, formerly known as Blackwater—to provide security services in Afghanistan. The contract to protect CIA installations in Afghanistan, reported by the Washington Post to be worth $100 million, is in addition to a separate contract Xe has with the State Department to protect U.S. officials in that country.

Blackwater was involved in a series of controversial incidents, including a deadly shootout in Baghdad in 2007 that claimed the lives of Iraqi civilians and became a political liability for the U.S. government. Mr. Panetta defended the agency's decision to retain the security firm, saying it had underbid rivals by about $26 million.

U.S. officials late Sunday said they couldn't confirm Arab media reports that President Karzai was set to meet members of the Haqqani Network. But one U.S, official said he believed contacts were being made.

"Something is going on with Haqqanis," said the official. "How far along it is not clear."

 

[GUNNER]

KABUL, June 28, 2010 (AFP) - Afghanistan's government Monday angrily dismissed as baseless a media report that President Hamid Karzai had met face-to-face with a notorious Al-Qaeda-linked Taliban leader in Kabul.

Karzai's spokesman said the report on Al-Jazeera television on Sunday was part of conspiracy to undermine a government-initiated peace plan aimed at ending almost nine years of war.

Al-Jazeera said Karzai had met with Sirajuddin Haqqani, who heads the notorious Al-Qaeda-linked Haqqani network, at his palace in the Afghan capital as a prelude to peace talks.

"The report is totally baseless, it is a lie and there is no truth in it," Karzai's spokesman Waheed Omar told reporters.

The report "was a source of some concern for us because we believe there is a connected chain of irresponsible rumours about the government of Afghanistan," he said.

"We believe this is part of the same campaign to undermine the peace process and undermine the process that we are going to start very soon," he said, referring to plans by Karzai to hold talks with Taliban.

He said Karzai's government had "pre-conditions for any peace talks" with insurgents. Haqqani is regarded as one of the most brutal militant leaders in the troubled region.
"The government will never compromise those conditions," Omar added.

Militants wishing to join any peace plan must renounce violence, accept the Afghan constitution, and rescind ties with "international terrorist groups," Omar said.

Al-Jazeera reported that a meeting between Karzai and the militant leader had recently taken place in Kabul mediated by Pakistan's army chief and the head of its intelligence services.

"There has not been a visit by any senior member of the Taliban, be it Haqqani or be it anybody else," Omar said.

Karzai would soon order the creation of a new body, called the High Council for Peace, to work on reconciling Taliban and other militants, he said.

 

[RescueRanger]

At times i think the US is her own worst enemy. First they don't want to talk to the Taliban, then they want to Talk to the Taliban, First they want Karzai to Talk, then don’t want him to Talk.

They ask Pakistani to negotiate; now they don't want Pakistan to negotiate? What the hell is going on in Washington? Are they on some sort of political menopause?

 

[Spring Onion]

News CENTRAL/S. ASIA
Karzai 'holds talks' with Haqqani




Hamid Karzai, the president of Afghanistan, has met Sirajuddin Haqqani, leader of a major anti-government faction, in face-to-face talks, Al Jazeera has learned.

Haqqani, whose network is believed to be based across the border, is reported to have been accompanied to the meeting earlier in the week by Pakistan's army chief and the head of its intelligence services, according to Al Jazeera's sources.

Karzai's office, however, denied on Sunday that any such meeting took place.

Major-General Athar Abbas, the Pakistani army spokesman, also said he had "no knowledge of such a meeting taking place".

The Haqqani network is described by the US as one of the three main anti-government armed groups operating in Afghanistan, alongside the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

It is thought to be responsible for the most sophisticated attacks in Kabul and across the country.

Increased speculation

Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr, reporting from Kabul, said reports about Karzai's meeting have fuelled increased speculation in the Afghan capital that Pakistan is trying to strike a deal in Afghanistan that would safeguard its interests here.

"With the US war effort floundering and plans by the White House to start withdrawing troops by July 2011, Karzai may be cosying up with Islamabad," she said.

"It may be the reason behind the forced resignations of the Afghan interior minister and intelligence chief who are hard-core opponents of the Taliban."
Haroun Mir, a political analyst, says secret talks are sparking suspicion among Afghans

Our correspondent was referring to the resignations of Amrullah Saleh, the head of the Afghan intelligence, and Hanif Atmar, the interior minister, earlier this month.

"Any political agreement may temporarily find a solution - but giving Pakistan a say in Afghan politics could undermine stability in the long term, especially among Afghans hostile to their neighbour," she said.

Afghan media have also reported that secret meetings are taking place and that Karzai is actively trying to hammer out a deal with groups opposed to his government.

Leon Panetta, the director of the US Central Intelligence Agency, said there was "no evidence" that the Haqqani network leadership was willing to negotiate.

"We have seen no evidence that they are truly interested in reconciliation where they would surrender their arms, where they would denounce al-Qaeda, where they would really try to become part of that society," Panetta said in an interview with ABC News.

"We have seen no evidence of that."

Regional support

Hekmat Karzai, the director of the Kabul-based Centre for Conflict and Peace Studies and a cousin of the Afghan president, said such talks would be that of a pragmatic leader who understands the realities of Afghanistan and the region.

"The fact [is] that regional players support is needed, particularly Pakistan," he said.

"[But] we aren't clear what transpired so far, so we have to wait to see what comes out of it."

Talat Masood, a defence analyst and former Pakistani army general, agrees that it is necessary to bring Pakistan and Haqqani into negotiations.

"It would greatly help and facilitate a peaceful exit of US and Nato forces if these warlords and Taliban are prepared to undertake negotiations and reach some sort of understanding of power-sharing," he said.

Some analysts say Karzai has already begun taking steps towards that end.

"Without a doubt Amrullah Saleh was not happy with Pakistani politics, and Pakistan considered him an obstacle in the way of them gaining a foothold in Afghanistan," Ahmed Saeedi, a political analyst in Kabul, told Al Jazeera.

"The Pakistanis have always said if you want peace you have to go through us."

Karzai 'holds talks' with Haqqani - CENTRAL/S. ASIA - Al Jazeera English