Reconciliation In Afghanistan

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Afghan Peace Body Requests NATO Help

KABUL, Oct 14, 2010 (AFP) - Afghan officials Thursday requested NATO's support in smoothing new peace efforts with the Taliban, including by halting military operations in areas where reconciliation talks could take place.

President Hamid Karzai earlier this month inaugurated the High Council for Peace, the latest effort in a long-running process aimed at persuading the Taliban and other insurgents to stop fighting his US-backed administration.

The war that has entered a 10th year is now at its deadliest, with record numbers of foreign troops dying and a Taliban insurgency that has steadily expanded since the 2001 US-led invasion brought down their regime.

"We are requesting NATO that they should do all that helps the peace process and negotiations with the Taliban," said council chairman Burhanuddin Rabbani, a former Afghan president, giving his first news conference since taking the post.

Senior council member Mahsoom Stanikzai said NATO's support was "essential."

He said halting military activities where militants were holding talks, reducing civilian casualties in military operations and convincing Afghans that "NATO is not here to occupy" Afghanistan were all vital to the process.

"We must do more to further reduce civilian casualties so this is not used as an excuse (for militants) to recruit more fighters," he said.

Officials leading the peace body said there was willingness among the Taliban for talks.

Washington and its other Western allies have backed Karzai's plan to reconcile with moderate members of the Taliban.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan said this week that the alliance force would allow Taliban leaders to travel to Kabul, if aimed at holding talks with the government.

 

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BRUSSELS, Oct 14, 2010 (AFP) - NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Thursday said the alliance was ready to support possible peace talks with the Taliban but ruled out halting military operations against the Afghan insurgency.

While the NATO-led force was willing to provide "practical assistance" for reconciliation efforts, "we should continue our military operations" against the Taliban, Rasmussen told a news conference.

 

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Iran Can Help Stabilise Afghanistan With US Support

ROME, Oct 19, 2010 - Iran can help stabilise Afghanistan with US support, a top Iranian diplomat said Tuesday, after taking part in talks on Afghanistan among world powers for the first time, ANSA news agency reported.

"Iran is convinced that a regional approach is needed to stabilise Afghanistan but clearly we need the support of the international community, including the United States," Mohammad Ali Qanezadeh was quoted as saying.

Qanezadeh, who is the director of the Iranian foreign ministry's Asia department, addressed a meeting on Monday in Rome of senior diplomats from 44 countries including nine members of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference.

The talks sketched out the broad outlines of a gradual handover of control in Afghanistan from foreign troops to local security forces starting in 2011, amid plunging public support for the war in Europe and the United States.

"We are ready for any action or initiative necessary for the stabilisation of Afghanistan," Qanezadeh said, adding that Iran was particularly worried about drug trafficking coming through its shared border with Afghanistan.

Qanezadeh said Iran was spending hundreds of millions of dollars (euros) in Afghanistan for children's education and reconstruction.

The senior US envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, on Monday said that Iran had "a role" to play in Afghanistan and welcomed the Islamic republic's participation in international talks on the issue in Rome.

 

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Karzai Hopes For Peace In Two Years

KABUL, Oct 20, 2010 - President Hamid Karzai said Wednesday he hopes within the next two years to significantly improve security in Afghanistan, which has been mired in conflict with the Taliban for almost a decade.

Afghanistan's neighbours support a peace process with the Taliban, and hopes were high for an improvement in the security, he said.

"We are in good contact with our neighbours. They support this peace process," Karzai told a development conference in Kabul.

"We are hopeful that we will all see improvement in the security situation of our country in one year or two, the security situation will, inshallah (God willing), be far better than what we have had today and yesterday," he said.

US President Barack Obama was to be updated Wednesday on talks between Taliban leaders and Karzai's government, for which NATO has been guaranteeing safe passage for some members of the rebel group.

The White House said Obama would sit down with military and civilian advisers for the monthly update on US operations in the war, before leaving on a mid-term election campaign swing.

Karzai this month set up a High Council for Peace to head up his plans for dialogue with the Taliban and other insurgent groups.

Members of the council say the Taliban have signalled a "willingness" for a political solution and NATO's commander in Afghanistan said his troops had helped at least one Taliban leader get to Kabul to meet Afghan officials.

Karzai said hopes for peace rose after a conference of national community, political and religious leaders in June gave him the go ahead to open dialogue with the Taliban.

"Hope for peace in Afghanistan has increased, the international community and our neighbours and our people are all trying hard towards peace," he said.

The war has entered its 10th year since the Taliban's Islamist regime was overthrown in a US-led invasion, after which they regrouped.