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Karzai Seeks Saudi Help With Taliban

By admin | September 30, 2008

KABUL, Afghanistan — As the Afghan war intensifies and American commanders call for increased troop levels, President Hamid Karzai said on Tuesday that he had sought the intercession of the Saudi royal family to bring the resurgent Taliban to peace negotiations.

But there was no immediate indication that the Taliban was ready to talk or that negotiations had begun.

Mr. Karzai was delivering a message to Afghans marking the Muslim holiday of Eid-al-Fitr. Standing in the grounds of the presidential palace he said Afghan envoys had been to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan but have been unable to start negotiations with the increasingly assertive Taliban.

“The reality is that for the last two years, we have been sending letters and messages to the king of Saudi Arabia,” Mr. Karzai said, “and we had urged him as a leader of the Islamic world — for us he is considered as leader of the Islamic world — to help us for security, peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan and for good relations in the region.”

“There has been no negotiation and nothing done yet. If any negotiation happens, it should be inside our country,” he said.

Mr. Karzai was speaking as the conflict assumes ever more dire proportions. The death toll among foreign troops in Afghanistan climbed to its highest level in seven years and militant operations have spread from Afghanistan into Pakistan, confronting American strategists with increasingly complex calculations and deadly encounters.

The latest casualties were made known on Tuesday when the United States-led coalition said three soldiers had died in a roadside bomb explosion in southern Afghanistan. The nationality of the soldiers was not released .

Mr. Karzai’s remarks followed recent news reports that the American-backed Kabul regime was suing for peace. Some reports have said direct talks between Afghan politicians and insurgents have already taken place.

Mr. Karzai said he had urged the Taliban leaders to “come back to your country and work for your people’s happiness and stop killing and harming people.”

But in a message marking the Islamic feast, the Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, made no reference to peace talks and accused the Afghan security forces of being thieves, smugglers and criminals, The Associated Press reported. The message demanded the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan.

Mullah Omar went into hiding after the American-led invasion that ousted the Taliban in 2001. His current whereabouts are disputed, with Afghan officials saying he is hiding in Pakistan, which maintains he still in Afghanistan.

Mr. Karzai offered to shield potential Taliban interlocutors from American and NATO soldiers operating in Afghanistan. “Don’t be afraid of the foreigners. If they try to harm you, I will stand in front of them,” he said.

It is not clear how the United States would view negotiations involving the Taliban.

Mr. Karzai acknowledged that there had been no practical outcome from the overtures to Saudi Arabia. But, he said, he hoped negotiations would “happen soon.”

In his message, by contrast, Mullah Omar seemed to refer to plans to increase the size of the Afghan army from a cap of 80,000 to 134,000.

“There are thousands of security forces and it is clear that they are criminal, thieves, and the people cannot trust the security forces at all,” Mullah Omar said in a statement posted on a Web site that has carried many Taliban statements in the past, according to The Associated Press.

“Foreign forces are the thieves of our culture, faith, as well as natural resources, in the same way the army and police steal the money, dignity and the honor of the people,” the message said.

Topics: Pakistan News |