| Submit your comments on this article |
| Afghanistan |
| Reformed Taliban Can Join the Govt: US |
| 2010-06-08 |
| [Quqnoos] US president's top envoy for Afghanistan said a final political solution in Afghanistan could involve reformed Taliban in the government Richard Holbrooke preconditioned that reformed Taliban figures should certainly accept the "red lines", which are the Afghan constitution and the human rights. He said the national peace conference in Kabul, in which the Afghan president was given a mandate to negotiate with the insurgents, was an important step in efforts to "reach out" to the Taliban. The United States supports the peace conference and the effort of Karzai calling on the Taliban to renounce violence. Asked whether that support extended to even top leaders, such as supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, one of the world's most wanted men, he told Reuters on Sunday. "Let me be clear on one thing, everybody understands that this war will not end in a clear-cut military victory. It's not going to end on the deck of a battleship like World War Two, or Dayton, Ohio, like the Bosnian war," Holbrooke said. "It's going to have some different ending from that, some form of political settlements are necessary ... you can't have a settlement with Al Qaeda, you can't talk to them, you can't negotiate with them, it's out of the question. But it is possible to talk to Taliban leaders." In Madrid for an international conference to discuss non-military ways to help end the Afghan conflict, Holbrooke said if a member of the Taliban repudiated Al Qaeda, laid down his arm and worked within the political system to join the government, "there's nothing wrong with that". "The door is open and this jirga was a benchmark event on the road to the effort towards reconciliation," he said, but did not specifically mention the leadership. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #3 Good Luck with that. |
| Posted by: Goober Crealet3411 2010-06-08 11:01 |
| #2 Yep, and 'reformed' sex offenders can open day care centers too. /sarc off |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2010-06-08 08:51 |
| #1 Iff they formally give up their Al Qaeda, etc. links. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2010-06-08 02:55 |