By Syed Saleem ShahazadAs peace overtures with the indigenous Afghan resistance move forward, the United States is stepping up efforts to eliminate al-Qaeda and other foreign bad turbans.
| Local bad turbans, too, when connected to the foreign (pakistan and beyond) bad ones. |
The development coincides with Washington impressing on all key players in South and Central Asia to combine efforts to bring peace to Afghanistan. The groundwork has already been laid for the US to negotiate with the Taliban, with the Pak military and Saudi Arabia acting as go-betweens.
| That's guaranteed to be effective, then. |
The infamous
However...
Taliban sources in the southern regions of Pakistain confirmed to Asia Times Online that while different Taliban groups had been approached, the Americans would prefer to talk to one of the major anti-US forces in Afghanistan, the Hezb-e-Islami Afghanistan (HIA) led by former Afghan premier Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
... who used to be known as
The Most Evil Man in the Worldbut who now seems merely run-of-the-mill evil...
The HIA is likely to strike a deal with the Americans before the Taliban, and notably HIA fighters showed no hostility during this month's parliamentary elections in the areas they control in Kunar, Nuristan, Baghlan, Qunduz and Kapisa provinces.
Talking to Asia Times Online from Los Angeles on phone, Hekmatyar's main negotiator with the Americans, Daoud Abedi, confirmed that in the ongoing backchannel negotiations, Washington is leaning towards the HIA, the reason being that the HIA's plans for Afghanistan are considered more practical than those of the Taliban. The Taliban are insistent on the revival of the Islamic Emirates of Afghanistan, which crumbled following the US-led invasion of late 2001. The Taliban do, however, agree to give representation in government to "clean" people of other groups.
"At the moment, the HIA's peace plan, which we presented to the Afghan government early this year, is now the central focus at all relevant forums," Abedi said.
Abedi was invited by the White House-appointed Afghanistan Study Group and the Center for International Strategic Studies to give a detailed presentation of the HIA's plan on September 17 in Washington. The plan, "Mesaq Milli Nejat" (Afghanistan Rescue National Agreement) covers internal and external issues.
The plan calls for the withdrawal of all foreign troops and a subsequent commitment to expel foreign bad turbans. The draft does not aim to immediately dissolve the government or the presidential parliamentary system. However,
Or maybe that should be a
Whatever...
its aim is that once foreign forces leave, fresh elections will be held at all levels and power should be transferred accordingly.
But only after foreign forces are gone so there'd be no one to jog elbows in vote fixing or even in an outright Hekmatyar-style coup-de-main in Kabel.
"At the moment, the Americans don't want to make public their viewpoint on this proposed agreement as the [November] mid-term American elections are near. They want to form their opinion next year," Abedi said.