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US, Afghan leaders agree on peace push, Taliban don’t
 [ARABNEWS] Despite US support, the Afghan government’s surprising new peace offer to the Taliban...the Pashtun equivalent of men... is immediately running into a wall. The snuffies show no sign of shifting from their demand that talks for a conflict-ending compromise take place with Washington, not Kabul. The impasse is blocking a diplomatic path out of America’s longest-running war and could prove as fateful as fortunes on the battlefield. The Trump administration says it’s escalating pressure on the Taliban to advance a negotiated solution to the fighting. But diplomacy is a distant second to military efforts right now, and the US isn’t offering carrots of its own to persuade the snuffies to lay down their arms. Laurel Miller, who until last June was a senior American diplomat for Afghanistan and Pakistain, said the US should be clearer about what it’s willing to negotiate on, including when it might start pulling forces from Afghanistan. "That could set the stage for talks," she said. Such a timetable seems a remote prospect, and President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... has consistently railed against the idea of telling the enemy when the US might leave. The US involvement in the Afghan conflict is now in its 17th year, and 10,000 Afghan non-combatants were killed or maimed in 2017 alone. All sides are hung up on even the format for potential negotiations. The B.O. regime’s peace push, which relied heavily on Afghanistan’s neighbor Pakistain, floundered in 2015. Afghanistan's Caped President Ashraf Ghani  ...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. ..’s new effort, announced at an international conference in Kabul this past week, includes incentives for snuffies that join negotiations and enter the political mainstream. The government would provide passports and visas to Taliban members and their families, and work to remove sanctions against Taliban leaders, he said. The group could set up an office. Alice Wells, America’s top diplomat for South Asia, endorsed the overture and said the "onus" was on the Taliban to demonstrate they’re ready to talk, "not to me or the United States, but to the sovereign and legitimate government and people of Afghanistan." Posted by: Fred 2018-03-05 |
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