Sunday, October 17, 2010

US not interested in Afghan negotiations


Interview with investigative journalist Gareth Porter
Press TV

"....Press TV: Mr. Porter, what are they saying about the status of the war? Is NATO admitting that it is losing now one of the biggest indicators we've seen yet?

Porter: You could certainly draw an inference that there is a nuance of difference here between September/October of 2010 verses early 2010 where the US military very clearly stated that they were not going to allow a safe passage by Taliban leaders to come into Kabul to participate in any peace conference despite the fact that President Karzai himself had explicitly and publicly requested that. So there's no question that this represents a clear change in policy of the United States. Actually interpreting precisely what that means is more complicated I'm afraid.

This is because the United States government still takes the position that the United States is not prepared yet to sit down or even conduct some talks about the possibility of the peace agreement with the Taliban directly or indirectly and I wrote about this just in the last couple of weeks based on a very good source in Washington who is certainly familiar with the thinking of the Obama administration, who told me that the United States is talking to the Pakistanis about what they are hearing from the Taliban leadership and about the possibility of a settlement but not yet entering into any indirect negotiations or talks with them....."

No comments: