The Future of a Negotiated Settlement with the Taliban | Atlantic Council

Image by Getty Images via @daylifeThe Future of a Negotiated Settlement with the Taliban | Atlantic Council

The Future of a Negotiated Settlement with the Taliban

January 20, 2011

The Atlantic Council's South Asia Center hosted a discussion with Abubakar Siddique on the future of negotiated settlement with the Taliban. Abubakar Siddique is a Senior Correspondent covering Afghanistan and Pakistan for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Drawing upon his own reporting and a wide range of contacts in the region, Mr. Siddique discussed the Taliban's likely agenda for future negotiations and outlined what a probable settlement would look like.

As the United States and NATO begin to evaluate their progress in Afghanistan in the short-term, other regional players have begun to consider the myriad scenarios that could play out in the long-term. A negotiated settlement with the Taliban is frequently mentioned as a solution for ending the conflict in Afghanistan, but questions remain about why attempts to reconcile with Taliban leaders and reintegrate insurgent fighters have so far delivered so little.

Event Media - Audio (.mp3, 1:22:08)

Abubakar Siddique is a Senior Correspondent covering Afghanistan and Pakistan for Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty's Central Newsroom. He has spent the greater part of the past decade researching and writing about security, humanitarian, and cultural issues in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the Pashtun heartland along the border region where he was born. In 2006, Mr. Siddique co-wrote a report with Barnett Rubin for the US Institute of Peace that was the first analytical work to address the importance of Pakistan's tribal areas in "Resolving the Pakistan-Afghanistan Stalemate" (Special Report No. 176). More recently, he wrote an article on the Pashtuns of Afghanistan and Pakistan for the National Defense University's "Global Strategic Assessment 2009: America's Security Role in a Changing World" (ed. Patrick M. Cronin). Mr. Siddique speaks English, Pashto, Urdu and several other regional languages.

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Biden makes unannounced visit to Afghanistan

Image via WikipediaBiden makes unannounced visit to Afghanistan

By Joshua Partlow

Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, January 10, 2011; 10:37 AM

KABUL - Vice President Biden flew into Kabul on Monday night for a round of high-level meetings as the Obama administration seeks assurance that its Afghanistanstrategy is taking hold.

Biden's unannounced visit brings him to the Afghan capital at a time of uncertainty in the war. Military commanders claim progressagainst the Taliban in the areas where they've concentrated U.S. troops, particularly in the southern Afghan provinces of Kandahar and Helmand. And President Obama last month called the war effort "on track."
But the insurgency remains potent in wide swaths of the country. The Afghan government has strongly opposed parts of the U.S. military strategy and not yet addressed its own problems with corruption. Insurgent leaders, meanwhile, operate safely from sanctuaries inPakistan.
U.S. military officials are waiting until spring, when the Taliban fighting season typically resumes, before drawing firmer conclusions about how much they've disrupted the insurgency and whether the Afghan government has stepped into the gap.
The recent death of Obama's special envoy to the region, Richard C. Holbrooke, removed a diplomatic heavyweight from the scene and raised questions about whether the Obama administration will shift its approach.
Holbrooke's acting successor, Frank Ruggiero, was also in Kabul on Monday following a visit to Pakistan. He came in part to assure officials in both countries that Holbrooke's position of special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan - a new office that has not always fit easily within the State Department - will remain intact, although Ruggiero is not expected to keep the job in the long term.
Biden has been a regular visitor to Afghanistan over the years. As senator, he was the first elected American official to arrive in Kabul after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and was a strong ally of Karzai's.
But in the past couple of years, Biden's relations with Karzai have grown shakier. Biden has been skeptical of Karzai's reliability and his willingness to address the corruption in his government. The two men had a combative dinner in Kabul in February 2008 while Biden was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. And just before Obama's inauguration, Biden delivered the message to Karzai that he would not have the same type of chummy relationship with Obama that he had with President Bush.

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'The terrorists have done the unthinkable,' said a grieving woman at the site of the bombing. Not so long ago many Pakistanis believed the Taliban and al-Qaeda were just innocent Islamists battling the evil Americans. The country is paying a heavy price for their refusal to face up to their true nature. ...
"

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The dangerous life of Kandahar's mayor – Afghanistan Crossroads - CNN.com Blogs

Image via WikipediaThe dangerous life of Kandahar's mayor – Afghanistan Crossroads - CNN.com Blogs

December 6th, 2010

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The dangerous life of Kandahar's mayor

Kandahar, Afghanistan — For the mayor of Kandahar, public service at the helm of Afghanistan's second-largest city carries a grave risk. His last two deputies were assassinated, and Ghulam Hayder Hamidi survived a roadside bomb 15 months ago.

"There was one guy standing there, the blood was dripping from his fingers," Hamidi told NATO Television. "I walked to my office, the car was completely gone."

Two people died and six were wounded in the attack, according to NATO.

But some of the mayor's duties are like those of any other mayor. He frets about cleaning up garbage and keeping the sidewalks clear. "These shopkeepers occupy the sidewalks completely," he said. "The traffic problems will happen and who's responsible? I am."

His office is in a historic building defended by a heavy, metal fence and barbed wire. Once a reporter has made his way to the building, an armed guard standing outside must give approval before the reporter can reach the mayor's office.

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Pakistan prepares for South Waziristan offensive against Taliban - Telegraph

Pakistan prepares for South Waziristan offensive against Taliban - Telegraph

Pakistan prepares for South Waziristan offensive against Taliban

Technorati Tags: Terrorist,Taliban,Waziristan,Peshawar,Pakistan

del.icio.us Tags: Terrorist,Taliban,Waziristan,Peshawar,Pakistan

Pakistan's armed forces are preparing to launch an all-out offensive against the Taliban's tribal stronghold in South Waziristan after almost 170 people were killed in terror attacks in the country in just 11 days.

By Dean Nelson in New Delhi, Javed Siddiq in Islamabad and Emal Khan in Peshawar.
Published: 5:44PM BST 16 Oct 2009

Police officers rush a person injured by a car bombing to a hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan Photo: AP
Gen Ashfaq Kiyani, head of the army, called a meeting with senior politicians hours after suicide bombers killed 12 people in an attack on Peshawar's police intelligence headquarters early on Friday.
The raid by three suicide bombers, including a woman, was the eighth Taliban attack in the last ten days, and brought the death toll to 168.

Pakistan prepares for South Waziristan offensive against Taliban - Telegraph

Pakistan fights 'mother of all battles' with the Taliban - Telegraph

Pakistan fights 'mother of all battles' with the Taliban - Telegraph

Technorati Tags: Pakistan,South Warziristan,Battle,Gunships,Al-Queda,Taliban

Pakistan fights 'mother of all battles' with the Taliban

The tanks, armoured columns and helicopter gunships of Pakistan's army stormed into South Waziristan, the global headquarters of al-Qaeda and its Taliban allies.

By Saeed Shah in Lahore, Emal Khan in Peshawar and Dean Nelson
Published: 5:19PM BST 17 Oct 2009

Pakistan Army troops head for Bannu, a town on the edge of Waziristan Photo: AP
Within hours of leaving their camps early on Saturday morning to fight what is being hailed as the decisive battle in the war against terror, 12 soldiers had been killed in the first ferocious gunfights.
Pakistan's generals have called the offensive the "mother of all battles" for the survival of a country under siege.

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There were reports of Taliban compounds coming under aerial bombardment from Pakistan gunships as troops moved out in three columns from Razmak to the north, Jandola to the east and Shakai in the west, and advanced on notorious Taliban target towns like Makeen and Ladha.

Pakistan fights 'mother of all battles' with the Taliban - Telegraph