The West should have negotiated with the Taliban more than a decade ago, soon after they were toppled, Britain’s senior general in Afghanistan said yesterday after recent efforts to start peace talks collapsed in ignominy.
General Nick Carter told the London-based Guardian that an opportunity to bring peace to Afghanistan was missed when the Taliban were on the defensive in 2002 after they were ousted following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the US.
“The Taliban were on the run,” he said.
“At that stage, if we had been very prescient, we might have spotted that a final political solution... would have involved getting all Afghans to sit at the table and talk about their future,” he added.
HINDSIGHT
Carter, deputy of commander of the NATO-led coalition, acknowledged it was “easy to be wise with the benefit of hindsight,” but that Afghanistan’s problems were political issues that “are only ever solved by people talking to each other.”
The search for a peace settlement with the Taliban is now a priority for the Afghan government and international powers, while the insurgency still rages across many parts of the country and US-led troops prepare to exit next year.
BUST-UP
A Taliban office in Qatar that opened on June 18 was meant to foster talks, but instead triggered a diplomatic bust-up when the insurgents used the title of the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan” from their reign between 1996 and 2001.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, furious that the office was being styled as an embassy for a government-in-exile, broke off separate security talks with the US and threatened to boycott any peace process altogether.
US President Barack Obama recently said he anticipated “a lot of bumps in the road” during the peace process, but that it was the only way to end the violence in Afghanistan.
DEATHS
More than 3,300 coalition personnel have been killed in Afghanistan since 2001, peaking at 711 deaths in 2010, according to the independent icasualties.org Web site.
British Prime Minister David Cameron has said at G8 summit 10 days ago that the military effort in Afghanistan, where Britain still has about 7,900 troops, had to be matched by a “political process.”
“That is exactly what I hope can happen with elements of the Taliban,” he said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese