Obama hints at talks with moderate Taliban

Monday, March 9: The pressure on President Barack Obama to break the mould in Afghanistan is growing - and he appears to be listening. As the Pakistani cricketer-turned- politician Imran Khan (pictured) joined the chorus saying the US has nothing to fear from the Taliban - he made the point on yesterday's Andrew Marr show on BBC1 - it transpires that Obama has suggested there could be talks with moderate elements of the fundamentalist Islamic movement as part of a process of reconciliation.

Talking aboard Air Force One, the President made the point to the New York Times that American forces in Iraq had persuaded some Islamic radicals to co-operate with the West. These were moderates alienated by the tactics of al-Qaeda and there were - possibly - "comparable opportunities" in Afghanistan, even though the situation there is "more complex".

Asked if America was "winning" in Afghanistan, the President - who has already OK-ed an extra 17,000 US troops to be deployed there - did not mince his words: "No".

Speaking in Kabul on Sunday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said the hint from Obama was "good news". "This is the Afghan government's long stand," he said. "We wanted this and we support and stand with them to bring peace and stability to this land."

However, the first reaction from the Taliban was not encouraging. Qari Yusuf Ahmadi, a Taliban spokesman contacted by the Guardian, said: "They say they want to speak to moderate Taliban but they will not be able to find such people because we are united around the aim of fighting for freedom and bringing an Islamic system to Afghanistan." He claimed Obama's comments were a reflection of the fact that the Americans had "become tired and worried".

Imran Khan joins a long line of politicians and diplomats advocating that the search for a political settlement demands that America talks to moderate elements within the Taliban. Khan believes Pakistan will "go down the drain" if the war in neighbouring Afghanistan continues much longer.

He claimed that America had little to fear from the Taliban - "they do not have the capacity to hit Western targets" - and that all that its bombing campaign achieved was the radicalisation of more and more people in the region. America should "isolate al-Qaeda - not push all the people towards al-Qaeda," he said.

Khan's comments came after a former SAS commander said the Ministry of Defence had "blood on its hands" for under-equipping British troops in Afghanistan and that anyway Britain's campaign in Helmand province was "worthless". "We hold tiny areas of ground in Helmand and we are kidding ourselves if we think our influence goes beyond 500 metres of our security bases," Maj Sebastian Morley told the Daily Telegraph.

FIRST POSTED MARCH 9, 2009