Karzai opponents open talks with Taliban, warlord

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Afghan political parties united against President Hamid Karzai recently opened talks with the Taliban and US-declared terrorist Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, hoping to broker peace ahead of next year’s exit of international combat troops and a presidential race that will determine Karzai’s successor, Taliban and Opposition leaders have told The Associated Press.

It’s the first confirmation that the Opposition has opened its own, new channel of discussions to try to find a political resolution to the war, now in its 12th year. And the Taliban too seem to want to move things forward, even contemplating replacing their top negotiator, two senior Taliban officials told the AP.

Reaching an understanding with both the Taliban and Hekmatyar’s Islamist militant group, Hezb-e-Islami, would give the Opposition, which expects to field a consensus candidate in next year’s presidential election, a better chance at cobbling together a post-Karzai government.

The alternative to a multi-party government after the 2014 elections, many fear, could signal a return to the internecine fighting of the early 1990s that devastated the capital Kabul. But with ongoing back-channel discussions and private meetings being held with Taliban interlocutors around the world, it’s difficult to know exactly who’s talking with whom.

Early last year, Karzai, who demands that any talks be led by his government, said that his administration, the US and the Taliban had held three-way talks aimed at moving toward a political settlement of the war. The US and the Taliban, however, both deny that such talks took place.

Hekmatyar’s group has held talks with both the Karzai government and the United States, and a senior US official said the Taliban are talking to representatives of more than 30 countries, and indirectly with the US.

The Taliban broke off formal discussions with the US last year and have steadfastly rejected negotiations with the Karzai government, which they view as a puppet of foreign powers. News about the Opposition group’s new avenue of talks comes amid Karzai’s latest round of verbal attacks on the United States, which have infuriated some of his allies in Washington and confused some of his senior advisers.

In recent weeks, Karzai has accused the US of colluding with the Taliban to keep foreign troops in Afghanistan and has attacked the Taliban for talking to foreigners while killing Afghan civilians in their homeland.

Earlier this month, Karzai accused the West of trying to craft an agreement between the Taliban and his political opponents and vowed to oppose the opening of a Taliban office in Qatar if it was used for talks with anyone other than his government. The US has denied the allegations.

The Afghan President also has stepped up his rhetoric against his political opponents, trying to paint them as American pawns in a grand US scheme to install a government of its liking when the United States and the NATO withdraws its combat troops by Dec. 31, 2014. The troop withdrawal and presidential elections are two major events observers fear could bring instability to Afghanistan.

Trying to put its stamp on the future, the Opposition united under a single banner called the Council of Cooperation of Political Parties, say it has reached out to both the Taliban and Hekmatyar, a one-time US ally who is now listed as a terrorist by Washington.