Karzai offered Taliban role in govt

[Naveed Yaseen]

* Allies would insist on information on terrorists in Pakistan and Afghanistan before deal, Taliban-Qaeda split

LAHORE: Afghan President Hamid Karzai has offered Taliban leaders the possibility of positions in his government if they agree to a peace deal which could bring fighting to an end, a Sunday Telegraph report said.

The offer was made through Karzai’s brother Qayoun at a secret meeting in Saudi Arabia of which Britain was aware.

Britain has been encouraging Kabul to talk to its Taliban enemies for more than two years and the Americans are thought to be coming round to the idea of a deal which would end the costly war in Afghanistan.

Price: But the Sunday Telegraph has learned that the allies would insist that the Taliban would have to split with Al Qaeda and provide information on international terrorists in Pakistan and Afghanistan as the price of a deal.

Under the Saudi Arabian initiative more than a dozen former senior Taliban figures travelled to the kingdom with the approval of Karzai’s government.

The British government has said little about the initiative in public but British military commanders and diplomats are known to favour talking to the Taliban as a way of ending the war.

There are growing fears that the weak Kabul government is not able to hold back the Taliban. British intelligence sources now believe the Taliban’s own ranks may be ready for a grand deal in which Taliban leaders will be allowed to return to their homes and even take positions of power and be granted immunity from prosecution. daily times monitor

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...2008_pg1_4