(AKI) The Taliban will agree to peace talks if they are recognised as a political force, if a date is set for the withdrawal of international forces, and if Taliban prisoners are released, according to Pakistan's former spy chief, Retired Lt. General Hamid Gul.Gul a former head of Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), said he believes negotations need to be taken forward with Taliban leader Mullah Omar. "Pakistan has to be brought on board too," he told Adnkronos International (AKI) and a small group of Western news organisations at a briefing in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. "I know the Taliban, I have worked with them for a long time, and can say they would never talk to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, they consider him a mere traitor and puppet," Gul said.
Taliban would be prepared to parley with the Americans but only on certain conditions, he said. First, that such talks are held publicly; that the US recognise the Taliban are not terrorists but fighters who are defending their country; that the US and NATO give a date for the withdrawal of their troops from Afghanistan; and that all Taliban prisoners are freed.
| "Barack Obama is wanting to outdo his rival, and that is not a good sign," Gul said, referring respectively to the Democratic Party's presidential candidate his Republican Party rival John McCain. |
Pakistan, wracked by terrorism and a deep economic crisis, an environment in which anti-Americanism is thriving, is facing collapse, Gul warned.
The implications of this situation for the fight against terrorism and the security of the country's nuclear arsenal, are dire, he said. "The risk is real, there could be a civil war, even a revolution along the lines of the Iranian one. Personally, I hope for a revoultion but a soft one, like that the one born in America during the Vietnam war or like pacifist movements in Europe against the war in Iraq, " Gul stated.
Something along these lines has occurred in Pakistan recently, with the lawyers movement and the judges who marched for a return to democracy, he said.
Musharraf committed the inexcusable error of aligning himself with the US's 'war on terror', Gul said. But he also had criticism for the fledgling government of Musharraf's successor, Asif Ali Zardari, the widow of slain former premier Benazir Bhutto.
Gul described Zardari as a "civilian dictator" who he claimed has adopted the same policies and autocratic leadership style as Musharraf. "It is very necessary that Parliament should call the shots, as a collective body, as a sovereign body under the democratic system," Gul stated. "His role as President of Pakistan is as the constitutional head. Everything else should be given to the parliament and the Prime Minister and the Cabinet," Gul stressed.
Discussing anti-Taliban operations in northwest Pakistan, Gul said it was hard to say exactly how many Taliban were in area along the border with Afghanistan, but the figure could be between 15,000 and 20,000. The more the Americans step up their cross-border operations, the more the Afghans will identify with the Taliban, Gul warned.
Many villagers in northwest Pakistan, especially in North and South Wazaristan tribal areas have a lot of sympathy for the Taliban's cause and believe it is their duty to help them - on the Pakistani and Afghan sides of the border, Gul noted. "The nation does not look upon this as Pakistan's war," he said.
He advised NATO forces in Afghanistan, including Italian troops, to withdraw, and urged them to start planning this immediately, ahead of a fresh Taliban campaign next Spring when fighting resumes after the winter lull. "The reconstruction of the country is impossible without peace. Peace has to come first," Gul concluded.