Afghan officials, Taliban may hold talks in Saudi Arabia

01/30/12: CNN reports that the Afghan government plans to hold talks with Taliban representatives in Saudi Arabia in the coming weeks, in a move that threatens to cloud already delicate and fragile steps to negotiate an end to the United States' longest war. An anonymous senior official said the plans were at such an early stage that it was not clear who -- including American officials -- would attend or when any talks would be held. The US has acknowledged that it has held discussions about opening a Taliban office in Doha, Qatar, as well as the possibility of transferring some Taliban prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay as part of American support for Afghan reconciliation efforts.

01/26/12: The New York Times reports that the new United Nations representative to Afghanistan urged Afghans on Wednesday to embrace an inclusive peace process in which all the elements of society would have a voice. Speaking to reporters for the first time since his arrival on January 17, the new envoy, Jan Kubis, said that “it should be an Afghan-led, Afghan-owned process, because it is about the country and the people of the country.”

01/25/12: The New York Times reports that Pakistani civilian and military leaders met Tuesday to discuss policy toward Afghanistan, including possible peace talks with Taliban militants. Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani met with the army chief, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani; the head of the spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence, Ltieutenant General Ahmed Shuja Pasha; and the foreign minister, Hina Rabbani Khar.

01/24/12: Reuters reports that US and Afghan officials have shown flexibility in secret talks with one of Afghanistan's most notorious insurgent factions in the hope it will help end the country's long war, a negotiator for the outlawed Hizb-i-Islami group said on Monday. Ghairat Baheer, the son-in-law of Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, told Reuters he had held exploratory talks with CIA director David Petraeus, the former commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan.

01/23/12: The Voice of America reports that a top US diplomat has urged Taliban insurgents to denounce ties to international terrorists and support Afghan peace initiatives.  US special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan Marc Grossman wrapped up two days of extensive talks with Afghan leaders in Kabul. Special American envoy Marc Grossman says the United States and Afghanistan are supportive of a Taliban move to open a political office in Qatar to promote the Afghan reconciliation.

01/22/12: The Daily Star reports that Afghan President Hamid Karzai claims to have met a delegation from Afghan insurgent group Hizb-i-Islami for peace talks, a sign that he wants to assert his authority over a nascent peace process. Karzai maintains Afghanistan should take the lead in talks, and wants to show he has the power to bring non-Taliban insurgents into the process.

01/20/12: The New York Times reports that President Hamid Karzai’s chief of staff expressed concern on Thursday about the American role in starting talks with the Taliban, complaining that Afghan officials were not being kept well informed and worrying about the possibility that the Taliban might make “a secret deal” with the United States. Afghan officials have been smarting over the American effort to allow the Taliban to open an office in the Persian Gulf state of Qatar, as a place where talks could begin. At first, the Afghans rejected the idea, but last month they agreed; the Taliban also accepted the initiative.

01/12/12: The New York Times reports that Marc Grossman, a veteran but low-key diplomat, and other administration officials last week were caught by surprise when the Taliban announced that they were prepared to take an important step by opening a political office in Qatar. Now, despite doubts in the administration, misgivings on Capitol Hill and the erratic objections of the most important partner in any potential peace deal — President Hamid Karzai — the administration’s best hope for ending the war in Afghanistan has reached a critical juncture.

01/09/12: CBS News reports that Taliban insurgents must agree to a cease-fire before formal peace negotiations can begin in Qatar, a spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Monday. Presidential spokesman Emal Faizi insisted that the government will never give up territory to the insurgents. Faizi laid out the government's terms days after the Taliban's announcement it would open a political office in Doha, Qatar, a key precursor to peace talks and the insurgents' first public move toward a political settlement to the 10-year-long war.

01/05/12: The New York Times reports that President Hamid Karzai said on Wednesday that he welcomed the Taliban’s announcement that they planned to openly pursue peace negotiations with the United States by setting up a political office in Qatar. But the fact that it took Mr. Karzai almost a full day to respond to the Taliban’s announcement — the most unequivocal signal to date that the insurgents are ready to talk — left lingering doubts about his willingness to play a secondary role in a reconciliation effort that is clearly being propelled, at least for now, by the United States and its allies. Both Washington and Kabul have repeatedly stressed that the peace process should be led by Afghans.

01/05/12: The Guardian reports that  the US has agreed in principle to release high-ranking Taliban officials from Guantánamo Bay in return for the Afghan insurgents' agreement to open a political office for peace negotiations in Qatar, the Guardian has learned. According to sources familiar with the talks in the US and in Afghanistan, the handful of Taliban figures will include Mullah Khair Khowa, a former interior minister, and Noorullah Noori, a former governor in northern Afghanistan. More controversially, the Taliban are demanding the release of the former army commander Mullah Fazl Akhund. Washington is reported to be considering formally handing him over to the custody of another country, possibly Qatar. HT to Neal R. Sonnett.

01/04/12: Mercury News reports that the Taliban announced Tuesday that they will open an office in the Persian Gulf nation of Qatar to hold talks with the United States, an unprecedented step toward a peace process that might lead to a winding down of the 10-year war in Afghanistan. Although US and Taliban representatives have met secretly several times over the past year in Europe and the Persian Gulf, this is the first time the Islamist insurgent group has publicly expressed willingness for substantive negotiations.

12/27/11: Reuters reports that Afghanistan will accept a Taliban liaison office in Qatar to start peace talks but no foreign power can get involved in the process without its consent, the government's peace council said, as efforts gather pace to find a solution to the decade-long war. Afghanistan's High Peace Council, in a note to foreign missions, has set out ground rules for engaging the Taliban after Kabul grew concerned that the United States and Qatar, helped by Germany, had secretly agreed with the Taliban to open an office in the Qatari capital, Doha.

12/11/11: The Washington Times reports that a Pakistani Taliban spokesman on Sunday denied an earlier announcement by the militant group’s deputy chief that it was holding peace talks with the government. The conflicting claims are a clear sign of splits within the movement, which could make it harder for Islamabad to strike a deal to end the violent insurgency gripping the country — although, possibly, easier to suppress it militarily. The Pakistani government meanwhile said that the US had vacated an air base used by American drones. Islamabad had ordered the Americans out in retaliation for US airstrikes last month that accidentally killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

12/10/11: The Voice of America reports that a senior Pakistan Taliban leader says the militant group has entered into peace talks with the government. Deputy Taliban commander Maulvi Faqir Mohammad told reporters on Saturday that talks were going in the right direction and that the group may soon sign a formal agreement with authorities. Mohammad, whose fighters operate in the Bajaur tribal agency, said any deal could be a "role model" for the rest of the border region. There was no immediate word from the government on whether the dialogue was actually taking place with the militants.

11/23/11: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports that a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban has denied that the group has agreed to a cease-fire or is in talks with the government. The denial, quoted by the Associated Press, came as officials said a November 23 attack on a police station in northwestern Pakistan had killed two police officers. The report quoted Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan as claiming responsibility for the attack, near Dera Ismail Khan.

11/22/11: The Seattle Post Intelligencer reports that a senior Pakistani Taliban commander says the movement has declared a cease-fire and halted attacks around the country in support of nascent peace talks with the government. The commander said late on Monday the group's cease-fire has been in effect for the past month. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not the official spokesman of the insurgent network.

11/21/11: The Toronto Star reports that, according to a senior Taliban commander and mediators, Pakistan's Taliban movement - a major security threat to the country - is holding exploratory peace talks with the government. The United States, the source of billions of dollars of aid vital for Pakistan's military and feeble economy, is unlikely to look kindly on peace talks with the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which it has labelled a terrorist group. Past peace pacts with the TTP have failed to bring stability, and merely gave the umbrella group time and space to consolidate, launch fresh attacks and impose their austere version of Islam on segments of the population.

11/13/11: The Los Angeles Times reports that every time Pakistan hammered out peace agreements with militants, the results were disastrous. The groups grew stronger, and the toll their bomb blasts took on civilians steadily rose. That history explains why anxiety is rippling through the country as talk builds of the prospect for peace negotiations with the Pakistani Taliban, the homegrown insurgency responsible for most of the suicide bombings and terrorist strikes that have killed thousands of people in recent years. Pakistani leaders have expressed a newfound interest in tackling the problem of militancy through peace talks rather than military confrontation.

11/07/11: Reuters reports that when the Russians pulled out of Afghanistan in 1989, they left behind a government in Kabul which outlasted the Soviet Union, kept Islamist insurgents at bay, and collapsed only after the money ran out. A similar scenario is taking shape again, only this time -- Western countries hope -- without the money running out. Analysts say there is little prospect of a political settlement with Taliban insurgents by 2014, when the United States and its allies plan to pull out most combat troops.

11/02/11: The Miami Herald reports that Afghan President Hamid Karzai pressed Pakistan on Wednesday to help his country negotiate with the Taliban, despite a series of high-profile assassinations and attacks that have diminished peace prospects and intensified suspicions that Islamabad supports and shelters the militants. Karzai's appeal came in Istanbul during a one-day conference on Afghanistan that drew regional players as well as Western powers. While a successful show of solidarity, the gathering also underscored how much is left to do in Afghanistan as international combat forces prepare to leave by the end of 2014.

10/31/11: The New York Times reports that just a month after accusing Pakistan's spy agency of secretly supporting the Haqqani terrorist network, which has mounted attacks on Americans, the Obama administration is now relying on the same intelligence service to help organize and kick-start reconciliation talks aimed at ending the war in Afghanistan. Secretary of State Clinton called the revamped approach “Fight, Talk, Build” during a high-level United States delegation’s visit to Kabul and Islamabad this month.

10/28/11: Reuters reports that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday defended the White House's twin strategy for ending the war in Afghanistan, saying it could battle insurgents even as it tries to nudge them toward a peace deal. Clinton faced questions from the House Foreign Affairs Committee about President Barack Obama's hopes to clinch a peace deal between the Taliban and its militant allies, such as the Haqqani network, and the Afghan government, which would allow foreign forces to safely withdraw.

10/02/11: The Miami Herald reports that the Afghan government needs to see Pakistan make "tangible progress" on pledges to use its influence to help end the Taliban insurgency, a foreign ministry spokesman said Sunday.  The statement came a day after Afghan President Hamid Karzai said he was giving up on trying to talk to the Taliban directly and that the key to ending the war is mediation by Pakistan.

08/03/11: The New York Times reports that the Taliban have begun to send signals that they are interested in a negotiated settlement, potentially offering an opening for the West and the Afghan government, several Western officials said. While there have been some meetings between the Afghan government, NATO officials and some Taliban figures — and even with someone who turned out to be a Taliban imposter — the Taliban have always insisted that NATO troops would have to leave Afghanistan before any meaningful negotiations could take place. Now two recent statements suggest instead that they would be willing to engage in talks even with foreigners in the country. The Taliban are also speaking in less inflammatory terms.

06/29/11: The Los Angeles Times reports that after months of quiet, behind-the-scenes diplomacy, officials last week began claiming progress in the effort to begin talks. "Only now are we beginning to see the kind of outreach that evidences a willingness to discuss the future," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a Senate committee on Thursday. Another senior US official said that increased US military pressure on the Taliban had made the militants willing to talk. In addition, discussions with the Afghan government and allies had helped forge a common position on negotiations and created "openings that didn't exist 18 months ago," the official said.

06/18/11: The Miami Herald reports that President Hamid Karzai said Saturday that Afghanistan and the United States are engaged in peace talks with the Taliban, even as insurgents stormed a police station near the presidential palace, killing three people. The brazen attack in the heart of Kabul's government district provided a sharp counterpoint to Karzai's announcement that the US and Afghan government are in talks with the Taliban, the first official confirmation of such discussions. The violence also underscored the difficulty facing any possible negotiated settlement to the decade-long war.

06/01/11: The Miami Herald reports that after 10 years of bloody battle in Afghanistan, the United States is trolling for Taliban officials to talk peace with before the July drawdown of American troops. Washington's special envoy, Marc Grossman, has a one-point agenda: to reconcile Afghanistan's warring factions, say Western diplomats in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

05/17/11: The Washington Post reports that the administration has accelerated direct talks with the Taliban, initiated several months ago, that US officials say they hope will enable President Obama to report progress toward a settlement of the Afghanistan war when he announces troop withdrawals in July. A senior Afghan official said a US representative attended at least three meetings in Qatar and Germany, one as recently as “eight or nine days ago,” with a Taliban official considered close to Mohammad Omar, the group’s leader.

05/05/11: The Miami Herald reports that about 2,000 protesters gathered Thursday to criticize President Hamid Karzai's willingness to start peace talks with the Taliban. Two former high-ranking Afghan officials, speaking at the protest, said Karzai is wrong to reach out to the Taliban and also was too beholden to neighboring Pakistan. Abdullah Abdullah, Karzai's former foreign minister and his opponent in Afghanistan's 2009 presidential election, said the president was "losing his way."

Thread: Peace talks with the Taliban, insurgent groups