Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has said that US talks with the Afghan Taliban were “not a pleasant business, but a necessary one,” and said that the direct contacts had been made possible by President Obama’s aggressive military strategy against the insurgents, the Washington Post reported.
“Only now are we beginning to see the kind of outreach that evidences a willingness to discuss the future,” Clinton told a Senate hearing. She described the discussions as “very preliminary.” US officials held three meetings this spring with Mohammed Tayeb al-Agha, an aide to Taliban leader Mohammad Omar but are unsure how the dialogue will proceed. They were reassured following the last contact when the Taliban, as agreed between the two sides, posted a coded acknowledgment of the discussion on its Web site, but there has not been another meeting, officials said.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has publicly acknowledged the talks, although his government has not participated in them, according to US officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the initiative. The administration has said repeatedly that any negotiations leading to a political settlement must be “Afghan-led.” But the Taliban has said it wants to speak directly with the US, officials said. Its demands include establishment of an independent political office outside Afghanistan, most likely in Qatar, from where it can manage its side of any talks.
For now, the administration has sidestepped the issue by not sending its top diplomat on Afghanistan issues, Marc Grossman, to the table. Meetings with Agha in Qatar and Germany were attended by Frank Ruggiero, Grossman’s deputy, and Jeff W. Hayes, a Defence Intelligence Agency official who handles Afghanistan and Pakistan issues on the National Security Council staff, officials said.
‘Pakistan views Indo-US ties as zero-sum game’
WASHINGTON – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday that every time the US tried to improve its ties with India, it created a lot of “cognitive dissonance” in Pakistan where the Indo-American relations had become a zero-sum game. “We make a move toward improving our relationship with India, which we started… in the ‘90s, and it’s been bipartisan, with both President (Bill) Clinton and President (Barack) Obama and President (George W ) Bush, the Pakistanis find that creates a lot of cognitive dissonance,” she said.
“So are you our friend or their friend? It’s all a zero-sum game to them,” she said yesterday during a hearing on Pakistan at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Agencies
