Afghanistan's Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani, center, speaks during a one-day meeting with Pakistan, U.S. and Chinese delegations in Kabul, Jan. 18, 2016. The talks are aimed at ending the country's 15 years of war with the Taliban.
OSLO — At a corner table of the Marriott Hotel in Pakistan’s capital, an emissary from the Taliban’s supreme leader arrived with a message of peace.
It was 2007, as the Afghan Taliban insurgency was growing bolder. The United States-led international coalition was fixated on defeating the Taliban militarily, and that mission would only intensify when President Obama sent in tens of thousands more troops starting in 2009.
But that evening at the Marriott in Islamabad, the talk was about diplomacy, and there were no Americans in the room. Alf Arne Ramslien, a senior Norwegian diplomat who had cultivated relationships and trust within the Taliban for years, was meeting with a confidant of Mullah Muhammad Omar, the movement’s reclusive founder, who was directing the insurgency from exile in Pakistan.
The Taliban emissary gave Mr. Ramslien a list of five names that Mullah Omar had tasked with exploring the possibility of peace talks. They needed the help of a facilitator, he said, and Mr. Ramslien was it.
Read more ....
Update #1: Taliban: Peace Talks Not Possible Until Foreign 'Occupation' of Afghanistan Ends -- VOA
Update #2: Afghan Taliban Reiterate Demands for Peace Talks With US -- VOA
WNU Editor: This Norwegian diplomat's remarks on how Pakistan help scuttle these talks is revealing .... especially in view of what is happening now and Pakistan's role in putting a coalition of nations that would exclude the current Afghan government and India .... An Afghanistan conference without Afghanistan (DW). As for the short to medium term prospects of a negotiated peace agreement .... I just do not see it happening. There are too many parties prospering from the conflict .... and any peace agreement would only jeopardise this status quo
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