Coalition forces in Afghanistan should open talks with the Taliban “pretty soon” as part of a future exit strategy, the head of the British army said on Sunday.
Insisting that talking to the enemy was eventually inevitable in a conflict of this kind, General Sir David Richards also seemed to cast doubt on whether the coalition would be able to inflict “strategic defeat” on the Taliban.
“If you look at any counterinsurgency campaign throughout history there’s always been a point at which you start to negotiate, probably through proxies in the first instance,” he said in an interview on BBC radio.
Claiming that he was merely expressing “a private view,” he went on: “I think there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be looking at that sort of thing pretty soon.”
Ministers have been cautious about talking up the prospects of holding peace talks for fear that it might be seen as an admission of defeat. However, Richards said he did not think negotiations and outright war were “mutually contradictory.”
“At the same time [as talking to the enemy], you have got to continue the work we are doing on the military, governance and development perspectives to make sure they don’t think that we are giving up. It’s a concurrent process,” he said. “We need to continue to make the Taliban feel they are being punished in a military sense. Whether we can turn that into some sense of strategic defeat I’m less certain.”
Richards insisted that the people of Afghanistan did not want the Taliban to return and was confident the coalition was making progress in training Afghan forces. Creating a “stabilized Afghanistan under a competent government” would allow British troops to come home with a feeling of a “job well done,” he said.
A UK Ministry of Defence source said although the government has not called for talks to start quite as directly as Richards did, the general’s comments were in line with ministerial thinking.
“We can’t win a purely military victory in Afghanistan,” the source said. “It’s going to have to go hand in hand with a political settlement.”
Last week, British Prime Minister David Cameron said he wanted British troops home by 2015, but in a separate interview on Sunday Sir Richard Dannatt, Richards’ predecessor, said: “Just think back. Northern Ireland, maybe very different circumstances, but we were there for 38 years. Bosnia, we were there for 14, 15. Kosovo, we were there for 10. These things take time.”
An endangered baby pygmy hippopotamus that shot to social media stardom in Thailand has become a lucrative source of income for her home zoo, quadrupling its ticket sales, the institution said Thursday. Moo Deng, whose name in Thai means “bouncy pork,” has drawn tens of thousands of visitors to Khao Kheow Open Zoo this month. The two-month-old pygmy hippo went viral on TikTok and Instagram for her cheeky antics, inspiring merchandise, memes and even craft tutorials on how to make crocheted or cake-based Moo Dengs at home. A zoo spokesperson said that ticket sales from the start of September to Wednesday reached almost
‘BARBAROUS ACTS’: The captain of the fishing vessel said that people in checkered clothes beat them with iron bars and that he fell unconscious for about an hour Ten Vietnamese fishers were violently robbed in the South China Sea, state media reported yesterday, with an official saying the attackers came from Chinese-flagged vessels. The men were reportedly beaten with iron bars and robbed of thousands of dollars of fish and equipment on Sunday off the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島), which Taiwan claims, as do Vietnam, China, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines. Vietnamese media did not identify the nationalities of the attackers, but Phung Ba Vuong, an official in central Quang Ngai province, told reporters: “They were Chinese, [the boats had] Chinese flags.” Four of the 10-man Vietnamese crew were rushed
CHINESE ICBM: The missile landed near the EEZ of French Polynesia, much to the surprise and concern of the president, who sent a letter of protest to Beijing Fijian President Ratu Wiliame Katonivere called for “respect for our region” and a stop to missile tests in the Pacific Ocean, after China launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). In a speech to the UN General Assembly in New York on Thursday, Katonivere recalled the Pacific Ocean’s history as a nuclear weapons testing ground, and noted Wednesday’s rare launch by China of an ICBM. “There was a unilateral test firing of a ballistic missile into the Pacific Ocean. We urge respect for our region and call for cessation of such action,” he said. The ICBM, carrying a dummy warhead, was launched by the
As violence between Israel and Hezbollah escalates, Iran is walking a tightrope by supporting Hezbollah without being dragged into a full-blown conflict and playing into its enemy’s hands. With a focus on easing its isolation and reviving its battered economy, Iran is aware that war could complicate efforts to secure relief from crippling sanctions. Cross-border fire between Israel and Hezbollah, sparked by Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7 last year, has intensified, especially after last week’s sabotage on Hezbollah’s communications that killed 39 people. Israeli airstrikes on Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon followed, killing hundreds. Hezbollah retaliated with rocket barrages. Despite the surge in
RSS