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'Reach out to the Taliban': British defence secretary
London (AFP) March 28, 2008 Britain should reach out to elements of the Taliban militia in Afghanistan who can be won over to the side of democracy, Defence Secretary Des Browne said in a newspaper interview published Saturday. Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, Browne said conflict resolution was about persuading people who believe that violence is the way to achieve their aims to try to fulfil their ambitions through politics instead. And that meant engaging with individuals or groups, even if their views were disagreeable. He applied the argument to Taliban insurgents -- whom British troops are fighting in southern Afghanistan -- as well as Lebanon's Hezbollah. Browne said there was currently "no basis of negotiation" with Al-Qaeda, but added: "The Taliban is a collective noun. There are some people who are driven by their own self interest rather than ideology. "There's no question that we should try to reach them. People have been switched. We have to get people who have previously been on the side of the Taliban to come onto the side of the (Afghan) government." His comments come after Jonathan Powell, who was former prime minister Tony Blair's top adviser, said in a March 15 interview with The Guardian that Western nations should talk to the likes of the Taliban, Hamas and Al-Qaeda. Powell argued that opening up channels of communication had proved to be successful in ending three decades of bloody sectarian violence between Protestants and Catholics in the British province of Northern Ireland. But efforts to engage elements of the Taliban saw Kabul expel two senior United Nations and European Union diplomats -- one from Britain and the other from Ireland -- for contacting insurgents in southern Helmand province. According to a Financial Times report from the Afghan capital on February 4, President Hamid Karzai was furious at the proposal to set up a military training camp for 2,000 Taliban militants who wanted to switch sides.
Russia's NATO envoy rejects Afghan transit trade off Ambassador Dmitry Rogozin rejected reports that any deal could be done to allow equipment and troops from the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to move across Russian territory. Indeed he suggested that a transit arrangement was virtually finalised, and might be concluded in time for next week's summit in Bucharest between Russian President Vladimir Putin and NATO leaders. "There is no connection, no relation at all between the NATO decision on Ukraine or Georgia and the completion of the transit agreement, or of any arrangement to support ISAF in Afghanistan," he told reporters in Brussels. "We do not speak here in the language of deals and trade," he said. However he underlined that ISAF's success in Afghanistan would depend on the strength of cooperation between NATO and Russia. "Without a good partnership between NATO and Russia it will not be possible to solve the problem of the post war settlement in Afghanistan," he said. "It's important to have an arrangement (on transit) because there are people who are struggling, fighting the Taliban and Al-Qaeda," he said. "Russia wants to help people." "It doesn't really matter how the arrangement is reached. It doesn't really matter whether that will be an exchange of letters or a decree, or another document issued by the government," he said. "Whether it can be concluded before the summit depends on our inter-agency communication in the Russia Federation. We will hope for the best." The transit deal is expected to would allow "non-lethal equipment for the NATO efforts in Afghanistan" to travel by land routes through Russia and Central Asia -- a far cheaper option than shipping by air. A NATO diplomat said there would no longer be any formal accord for NATO and Russia to sign, but rather "a unilateral decree", which would allow transit rights to be worked out between individual ISAF nations and Moscow. Russia is deeply opposed to NATO allowing Georgia and Ukraine into its membership action plan -- the ante-chamber to joining the alliance -- and argues that such a move could spark regional instability. Related Links News From Across The Stans
Commentary: Afghan lament
Washington (UPI) Mar 28, 2008 "I don't care if it takes another 10 or 20 years, but we cannot allow Afghanistan to fail." So spoke Frank Carlucci, former U.S. defense secretary and national security adviser, at the Council on Foreign Relations. Failure, said Carlucci, would break the Atlantic Alliance and turn the world stage over to the next two global heavy hitters -- China and Russia. |
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