Karzai Seeks Saudi Help With Taliban

[cal04]

Source: NY Times

President Hamid Karzai said Tuesday that he had sought help from the Saudi royal family for the last two years to bring the resurgent Taliban to peace negotiations.

Mr. Karzai was delivering a message to Afghans marking the Muslim holiday of Id al-Fitr, which ends the month of Ramadan. Standing in the grounds of the presidential palace, he said Afghan envoys had been to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan but were unable to start negotiations with the 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.”

(snip)
Mr. Karzai spoke at a time when the Afghan war has been intensifying and American commanders have calling for increased troop levels. The death toll among foreign troops in Afghanistan climbed to its highest level in seven years, and militant attacks are on the increase in both Afghanistan and Pakistan, confronting American and NATO strategists with increasingly complex calculations and deadly encounters. It is not clear how the United States would view negotiations involving the Taliban.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/01/world/asia/01afghan.html?hp

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the Guardian on Sat
Revealed: secret Taliban peace bid
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/sep/28/afghanistan.defence

[uppityperson]

1. Wow. This is quite interesting.

Back to the fundamentalist Saudis to help rein in the fundie Taliban. Poor Afghanistan. USSR, Taliban, Norther Alliance, USA, war lords, fight fight fight fight fight. More repressive, slightly less, oops back to more. Oh dear. Now, asking Saudi's for help, while the USA war is not going so well (for varied reasons). Huh. Thanks for posting this article. It leads to all sorts of thoughts.

[Edweird]

2. I'm sure the saudis are already helping the taliban as much as they can.

Oh. wait...