Rebels16 talks with Karzai Afghanistan: 46 22/03/2010, Jon Boone, Afghanistan, guardian.co.uk, Hamid Karzai, news, Taliban, USA, U.S. foreign policy,

Rebels16 talks with Karzai Afghanistan: 46 22/03/2010, Jon Boone, Afghanistan, guardian.co.uk, Hamid Karzai, news, Taliban, USA, U.S. foreign policy, world news, Guardian Unlimited

President militant group meets officials to discuss 15-warlord's peace plan for the troops on their way out of Afghanistan



Hamid Karzai has held face to face talks with the insurgents assets represent one of the most violent rebel leaders operating in Afghanistan Afghan president's office said today.

Karzai's spokesman said the unprecedented meeting took place "a couple of days ago" between the president and senior militant wing of the Hezb-e-Islami, led by the Islamist warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar from his sanctuary in Pakistan.

According to the spokesman of the organization, Haroun Zarghoun, delegates presented a 15-point plan, including a call for foreign troops withdraw from Afghanistan within six months from July. Six months after an interim government is appointed and preparations made for new elections.

Matt Waldman, an independent analyst specializing in the peace talks of the Taliban, said: "Sounds like an open position because they know that they are not eligible claims."

However, it was remarkable that these insurgent leaders were allowed to move freely around Kabul to attend the meeting with Karzai.

Representatives of Mr. Hekmatyar, who is blacklisted by the U.S. and the United Nations as an international terrorist, have participated in informal discussions before, including a meeting in the Maldives, but are not believed Karzai has taken part in those discussions himself. Normally, the president is represented by members of his National Security Council or by his brother Qayoum, a citizen who plays an important role in the politics of reconciliation.

Was deputy head delegate Hekmatyar Qutbuddin Helal and included his son in law and former spokesman.

A spokesman for the movement said it had full authority to speak on behalf of Hekmatyar and also scheduled to meet other important Afghan leaders, including former mujahedeen leaders, Abdul Rasul Sayyaf and Burhanuddin Rabbani, as well as foreign ambassadors.

A British embassy spokesman said he had no knowledge of that meeting but that the United Kingdom, supported the peace talks while they were led by the Afghan government.

The development is likely to please the British government, which wants to see immediate action to achieve a political settlement with rebel leaders.

However, the U.S. requires a more gradual approach, hoping that if the 30,000 additional troops sent to Afghanistan this year to chalk successes main battleground then the insurgent leaders are willing to be more flexible in their demands.

Waldman said the last prayers of one of the warlords of Afghanistan's most notorious further increase the divisions between the U.S. and its main allies.

Hezb-i-Islami is an ally of the Taliban and is dominant in the east. Over the years, has claimed responsibility for some of the most deadly and spectacular attacks in Kabul, including a brazen attempt to assassinate Karzai during a military parade in 2008.

Although Hekmatyar has a reputation as an uncompromising radical Islamist, in recent months has been rumored that he is willing to agree power-sharing peace deal with the government. Some analysts have suggested that the overture may mean that Hekmatyar Hezb-i-Islami alliance with the Taliban movement led by Mullah Omar could be frayed.

Two weeks ago the two groups clashed in the province of Baghlan, a large number of leaders of the Hezb-i-Islami fighters to defect to the government.

Hekmatyar is one of the most controversial leaders of former mujahideen who fought the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s and served as prime minister after the Moscow-backed government in Kabul finally fell in 1992.

Karzai has already moved to accommodate the powerful members of Hezb-i-Islami, which operates legally as a party and is represented by deputies and provincial governors.

Afghanistan
Hamid Karzai
Taliban
United States
U.S. foreign policy
Jon Boone


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