Afghanistan’s President’s Brother Met Taliban Leaders

October 9th, 2008 By: Michael van der Galien | Tags:
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According to a report at the BBC, the brother of Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan’s president, met with some Taliban leaders while visiting Saudi Arabia.

‘The Afghan president’s brother sat with former Taleban leaders at a religious meal hosted by the Saudi King Abdullah last month,’ the British news channel reported on Wednesday.

The meeting is regarded as a possible prelude to talks between the Afghan government and the Islamic movement.

Reports suggest negotiations took place during this meeting, although this has been strongly denied by both sides.

Recently, British and US officials said a resolution to the conflict would require negotiations with the Taleban.

Not only was Qayum Karzai, Hamid’s older brother, present, Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif attended the meal as well.

In short, all the key players in the region, except for the United States and Iran of course, were present.

The report is a clear sign of things to come. The Afghan government seems to believe that it will not be able to beat the Taliban militarily. This means that they have to strike some kind of deal with the Muslim extremists, who ruled (large parts of) the country for about 20 years, and brought it to near ruin.

It also makes clear that Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have more influence in the country than they are willing to admit publicly. Both countries supported the Taliban in the past, but publicly sided with the United States when it attacked Afghanistan after the attack on the World Trade Center in New York, in September 2001.

Unlike what the Saudis and Pakistanis are willing to state publicly, no lasting solution can be found for Afghanistan without their cooperation. They have both historically worked to undermine all liberal and democratic forces in that country, and have enabled the Taliban to oppress their people, to create a radical Sunni Muslim state which then ended up being bombarded by the United States because it served as a safe haven for terrorists such as Osama Bin Laden.

Those facts aside, it is likely that we will see major changes in Afghanistan in the coming year. The Taliban will most likely be involved in the governance of the country, and Pakistan and Saudi Arabia could very well change their policy towards Afghanistan a bit. This could very well result in more stability, but one cannot help but wonder at what price.

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