Afghan exit strategy takes shape ahead of London talks
LONDON (Reuters) - Politicians and Western army chiefs mapped out the contours of an Afghanistan exit strategy on Monday, with three generals holding out the possibility of an eventual peace deal with the Taliban. He spoke ahead of a conference in London expected to agree a framework for the Afghan government to begin taking charge of security in line with a 2011 timetable set by President Barack Obama to start drawing down U.S. troops. His comments echoed those made by senior U.S. army chiefs, including General David Petraeus, who said the fighting would get harder before the situation improved as Washington sends an extra 30,000 troops to break a stalemate in Afghanistan. But both Petraeus, the head of the U.S. Central Command, and General Stanley McChrystal, commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, held out the possibility of eventual talks with the Taliban leadership to end a war now into its ninth year. "The concept of reconciliation, of talks between senior Afghan officials and senior Taliban or other insurgent leaders, perhaps involving some Pakistani officials as well, is another possibility," Petraeus told The Times newspaper. McChrystal said he hoped increased troop levels would weaken the Taliban enough for its leaders to accept a peace deal. "It''s not my job to extend olive branches, but it is my job to help set conditions where people in the right positions can have options on the way forward," he told the Financial Times. "I think any Afghans can play a role if they focus on the future, and not the past," he said when asked whether he would be content to see Taliban leaders in a future Afghan government. The Taliban has been downbeat about possible peace talks. "We cannot say how soon we will achieve victory. Our mission is sacred, victory and defeat are in the hands of God," Qari Mohammad Yousuf, a Taliban spokesman, told Reuters in Kabul. "But Afghans will defeat this regime as they did that of the Russian-backed regime." |