The United States and Pakistan are planning a joint effort to draw the Taliban toward peace talks in Afghanistan, an initiative that could help reconcile some militants and give Pakistan a say in the political future of its larger neighbor, The Washington Post reported on Saturday.
A joint commission, or “action group,” would help vet candidates for political rehabilitation, with a goal of helping Afghanistan frame a workable peace deal after US and foreign forces leave the country.
Officials familiar with the previously undisclosed plan described it on condition of anonymity because it is not final and because some aspects of US outreach to the Taliban are classified.
The planned joint vetting was among the main focuses of a nearly five-hour meeting last week between three senior US officials and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, officials of both governments said.
The session also covered plans to grant Taliban figures living in Pakistan “safe passage” to political talks.
“Whatever you call it, the roadmap will have many aspects to determine who is reconcilable and who is not, how to then move once you determine they are reconcilable, and what should be on the table and what should not be on the table,” a senior Pakistani official said.
US officials used similar language to describe the goal of the new partnership.
“It would look at who is reconcilable and who is not,” a US official said, with Pakistan using its historical intelligence ties to Taliban elements to advise the US and Afghanistan.
The US-Pakistan vetting operation would be part of larger cooperation taking place among Afghanistan, Pakistan and the United States despite crosscutting tensions among all three nations.
Pakistan’s participation in the Taliban effort is a recognition that some political deal to end the Taliban’s 11-year insurgency is likely, or at least possible, after the bulk of foreign forces the country in 2014, officials said. Pakistan’s leaders acknowledge they have so far been on the margins of efforts to draw the Taliban into talks.
The vetting idea is still in the planning stages and it was not clear whether it would involve Pakistani outreach directly to Taliban leaders living in or near the city of Quetta, and how the Haqqani network, a Taliban affiliate recently declared a terrorist group by the United States, would fit it.
“This will have to be a joint determination,” the Pakistani official said. An internal Afghan effort to reach out to mid-level Taliban leaders appears to be more promising now, several US and other officials said. The US-Pakistani vetting operation could dovetail with the Afghan effort, they added.
“Our prerequisite in this is that is to be visibly Afghan-led, Afghan-owned and that everybody else shares the responsibility” of helping to frame a viable political settlement, the Pakistani official said.
The US special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Marc Grossman, led last Friday’s lengthy meeting with Zardari. White House and Pentagon officials accompanied Grossman.
Any deal is likely to take years, far outlasting the current plans to end formal combat against the Taliban in 2014.
