A CONCERTED effort to start unprecedented talks between Taliban and British and American envoys has been set out in a significant change in tactics designed to bring about a breakthrough in the attritional, eight-year conflict in Afghanistan.
Senior British ministers and commanders on the ground believe they have created the right conditions to open up a dialogue with “second tier” local leaders now that the Taliban has been forced back in a swathe of Helmand province.
They are hoping that Britain’s continuing military presence in Helmand, strengthened significantly by the arrival of thousands of US troops, will encourage Taliban commanders to end the insurgency. There is even talk in London and Washington of a military “exit strategy”.
Speaking on Monday at the end of the five-week Operation Panther’s Claw in which hundreds of British troops were reported to have cleared insurgents from a vital region in Helmand province, Lieut-Gen Simon Mayall, deputy chief of the British defence staff, said: “It gives the Taliban ‘second tier’ room to reconnect with the government and this is absolutely at the heart of this operation.”
The second tier is regarded as crucial because they control large numbers of Taliban fighters in Pashtun-dominated southern Afghanistan.
The first tier of Taliban commanders – hardliners around Mullah Omar – could not be expected to start talks in the foreseeable future.
The third tier – footsoldiers with no strong commitments – are not regarded as influential or significant players.
Lieut-Gen Mayall is responsible for formulating operational policy in Afghanistan and his remarks gave added weight to interventions by senior British ministers yesterday. British foreign secretary David Miliband and Douglas Alexander, the international development secretary, held out the prospect of reconciliation between the Afghan government and Taliban fighters who were prepared to renounce violence.
For more than a year, British intelligence officers have been advocating and instigating contacts with Taliban commanders and their entourage. However, their task has been particularly delicate, given the sensitivities of the Karzai administration in Kabul.
The situation has been complicated further by the influx of increasingly hardline and ideologically motivated fighters joining the Taliban and other insurgent groups from across the Pakistani border.
However, the fact that both senior ministers and military commanders seized on the apparent success of Operation Panther’s Claw to highlight the possibility of talks with the Taliban reflects their concern about the lack of progress so far in Nato’s counter-insurgency.
Significantly, and as if to counter public aversion to talks with the Taliban, ministers and military commanders alike compared the current campaign in southern Afghanistan to anti-terrorist operations in Northern Ireland.
America’s priorities in Afghanistan will be spelled out in a briefing paper drawn up by Gen Stanley McChrystal, the new US commander in the country, due to be handed to President Barack Obama today.
He will stress the need for speeding up the training of Afghan national army and security forces, according to defence sources. He is also expected to ask for more troops from Nato allies. British military commanders are drawing up contingency plans to increase the number of British forces to more than 10,000 from the current 9,000.
– ( Guardianservice)