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It may represent a significant step forward towards the resumption of peace talks that were suspended in Qatar last month, and comes just weeks ahead of a NATO summit in Chicago on the future of Afghanistan.
Speaking at a joint press conference with U.S. Special Envoy Marc Grossman and Pakistani Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani, Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Javed Ludin said: "Time is short, peace is urgent."
New blow to US-Afghan links? Congressional delegation meets Karzai foes
"We need to find and encourage and create safe passage for peace talks," with the Afghan Taliban, he added.
His comments came after the three countries held their sixth meeting aimed at political reconciliation in Afghanistan.
A U.S. Embassy official confirmed to NBC News that the countries have agreed to allow and facilitate travel of the Afghan militants to participate in any future talks. The official said details of how it would work in practice have not been announced.
U.S. sees Taliban talks suspension as tactical move
Jilani announced the establishment of two new groups, one to represent the efforts of the three countries at the United Nations, and another responsible for "safe passage." "Safe passage will be to help bring Afghan Taliban in to peace talks," he told NBC News.
Rahmat Gul / AP
More than ten years after the beginning of the war, Afghanistan faces external pressure to reform as well as ongoing internal conflicts.
Talks were suspended last month amid a string of public setbacks that have scandalized and angered Afghans, notably U.S. soldiers' burning of copies of the Koran and the killing of 16 Afghan villagers for which a U.S. soldier is in custody.
Dr Gareth Price, senior research fellow at Britain's Chatham House think thank, told msnbc.com the move could be seen as a "confidence-building measure".
"The US has made clear it will remain in Afghanistan in some form - that's the stick, if you like, so maybe this is the carrot," he said.
On Tuesday, White House sources told Reuters that President Barack Obama's administration may hand over a Taliban detainee at Guantanamo Bay prison directly to the Afghan government in order to help revive peace talks.
As foreign forces prepare to exit Afghanistan, the White House had hoped to lay the groundwork for peace talks by sending five Taliban prisoners, some seen as among the most threatening detainees at Guantanamo, to Qatar to rejoin other Taliban members opening a political office there.
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While that plan has not been scotched entirely, several sources familiar with preliminary discussions within the U.S. government said the United States may instead, as an initial gesture meant to revive diplomacy, send one of those detainees directly to Afghan government custody.
The sources identified the detainee as a former Taliban regional governor named Khairullah Khairkhwa, who is seen by American officials as less dangerous than other senior Taliban detainees now held at the U.S. military prison in Cuba.
Karzai slams NATO over 18-hour Kabul gunbattle
More than a year ago, the White House launched what began as a secretive diplomatic bid to coax the Taliban, the Islamist group that ruled Afghanistan until 2001, into peace talks. That campaign has become central to U.S. strategy as officials conclude the Afghan war will not end on the battlefield alone.
Five alleged members of the Taliban are being detained in Afghanistan after authorities discovered a huge amount of explosives in a truck. NBC's Lester Holt reports.
It remains far from clear whether the Taliban would embrace sharing power in Afghanistan and whether the militants are cohesive enough to agree on a joint diplomatic approach.
But Washington's strategy, before the summit in Chicago, is to build on what officials see as military progress against the Taliban, and encouraging signs from the Afghan and Pakistani governments, to heap pressure on the Islamist group.
The Chicago summit is expected to further detail plans for the withdrawal of most of NATO's 130,000 troops there by the end of 2014 and set the course for future ties between Afghanistan and the West.
After an 18-hour assault, the Taliban took responsibility for the destruction. NBC's Brian Williams reports.
U.S. efforts to broker the talks were dealt a blow last month when the Taliban suspended its participation and appeared to reject even minimal restrictions for prisoner transfer.
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Meanwhile, President Obama has reviewed potential threats to the United States before next week's anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden, but there is no concrete evidence al-Qaida is plotting any revenge attacks, the White House said on Thursday.
U.S. Navy SEALs shot bin Laden last year in a raid on the al-Qaida leader's compound in Pakistan before dawn on May 2 local time, which was May 1 in the United States. The killing is touted by the Obama administration as one of its top national security accomplishments.
Osama bin Laden's widow, kids leave Pakistan
"At this time, we have no credible information that terrorist organizations, including al-Qaida, are plotting attacks in the United States to coincide with the anniversary of bin Laden's death," White House press secretary Jay Carney said on Thursday.
Farooq Naeem / AFP - Getty Images
U.S. forces found and killed the al-Qaida leader in the affluent Pakistani town of Abbottabad, where he had been living in a large compound.
That assessment was echoed in an FBI and Department of Homeland Security intelligence bulletin issued on Wednesday to state and local law enforcement agencies.
The bulletin said U.S. agencies "have not detected signs of homeland plotting by these groups in the intervening months."
Abbottabad: One year after bin Laden
Despite the lack of evidence of a threat, the bulletin cautioned that al-Qaida "probably would view a homeland attack on this anniversary as a symbolic victory that would help reassert the group's global relevance following the major leadership losses and operation setbacks it has suffered over the past year."
Reuters contributed to this report.
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Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world
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If there is one war that I strongly support the U.S. on is the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan. The Taliban along with the sister group called al-Qaeda (The Base) planned and carried out 911. The war against the two groups is a justified war that is why the world is not crying out loud about U.S. involvement in Afghanistan. But to hear that the U.S. is giving "safe passage" to the very group that helped plan 911 shows how weak the U.S. has become against the Taliban. I never thought I could live to see a peace talk with the Taliban to incorporate them Taliban into the Karzai government that the U.S. spend Billions putting together. The fact that the U.S will condone a peace talk with the Taliban tells me the U.S military strategists have all ran out of steam. I am waiting to see the strategy behind this "safe passage" and it better be for something good or get out of Afghanistan.
msnBsee, Al Qaeda, alone, planned and carried out 9/11. The Taliban did not assist in this operation. The Taliban was the legitimate government in Afghanistan before we assisted the Northern Alliance in overthrowing them. To leave them out of any peace negotiation would be foolish and ultimately a waste of time.
Come on now, we all been following the story. Was it not Bin Laden who arrived in Afghanistan in 1995 and established strong ties with the Taliban under Mullah Omar? Didn’t the Taliban under Omar refused to break ties with AL-Qaeda after the U.S pressured the Taliban government to break away from al-Qaeda and hand over bin Laden but Mullah Omar refused? So then, is the Taliban not guilty by association and equally responsible for 911? Can you show me any documentation that the Taliban knew nothing about 911?
It's a cluster any way that you look at it. The Afghans don't want us there and we have no real reason to be there now that Al Quaida has moved on. Pakistan is as much our enemy as our ally. When they say they are fighting the Taliban they are talking about the Pakistani Taliban. The Afghan Taliban they help against us.
As I see it the only real option is to walk away from the whole thing and tell the Afghan Taliban that they can be a part of the new Afghan government if they want, but if we don't like what we see we'll be back to bomb them back to the stone age again. Only next time we won't waste time on nation building. We'll just leave a pile of corpses as a warning to our enemies not to mess with us and walk away.
Don't you right-wing hate mongers have anything better to do than argue that we need to keep fighting a war that we have already wasted 12 years fighting.The objectives in Afghanistan have been met and now it is time to close the show and move on.Dubya wasted 8years chasing Bin Laden,half way.Dubya was like a kitten with a new toy because after about six months Dubya lost interest in finding Bin Laden,and he stated that he wasn't worried about where Bin Laden wsa or what Bin Laden was doing.The majority of American people are ready to close out the book on Afghanistan and spend the money here at home so that we can repair our nation.We need to take the money that went to the war and instead spend that money retraining our workforce so the young people will have the skills for the jobs of the 21st Century.We need to stop getting our military involved in these large ground wars and instead take that money and spend it here in America.What is wrong with putting Americans first.We need to let the Afghans figure out what they want to do and let them do it.If they want Karzai then let them elect him,if they want the Taliban then let them have it.It is not our problem we got rid of Bin Laden and knocked the Taliban down to where they aren't a threat to us anymore.My thought on this is if you want a war over there then get your gun and go over there and shoot some Afghans.
I'm not very hawkish myself but I think that if Afghanistan harbors the terrorist again after we ran them out then I think we should just "Nuke Em" and turn Afghanistan into a big night-light so that we can find the bugs and squash them.
MsnBsee-Al-Qaeda is no longer in Afghanistan,which is why we need to get out of Afghanistan.Al-Qaeda has now moved it's terror attacks to Yemen.Why do you think President Obama is using drones in Yemen and to some extent in Africa?There have several accounts of battles in Yemen and Africa where Al-Qaeda will attack a village and then our drones will fly in and attack Al-Qaeda forces and force them to retreat.So to end your arguements for staying in Afghanistan it is not in our interests to remain tied down in Afghanistan because we need to be more flexible so we can respond to Al-Qaeda attacks elsewhere.
That's where Roosevelt screwed up. He should have granted safe passage to Hitler and the Japanese Emperor; then things would have gotten a lot better without a world war.
cunical, your analogy makes no sense. It would if we had overthrown the governments of Japan and Germany and they then mounted an insurgency. But, they didn't
Germany and Japan's representatives were given safe passage to negotiate and sign the peace treaties.
Or do you think we were shooting at them during that process ?
It's funny how all these people with absolute NO experience speaking with people outside their own neighborhoods, much less state or country know better than the President and his cabinet (along with military leaders) about how to deal with foreign relations. All you know is what's reported. You have NO knowledge past that about what could be a good strategy.
I am HAPPY that we have a President that is at least WILLING to OPEN DIALOGUE and compromise as a way to get where we ALL want to be, which is NOT AT WAR. One of the reasons foreign leaders were happy to see Obama become President is that in the past they had to deal with people that come from the standpoint that they must meet OUR demands. America is a great country but we are not without fault. An open and honest dialogue might actually work for once, instead of trying to bully our way through every situation or make sneaky deals with nefarious characters that might come back to bite us in the arse (bin Laden). Diplomacy should ALWAYS be first choice!
These peace negotiations only embolden the Taliban and other groups like them. They don't want peace and the US governmental leaders think that these efforts make them look good. It only makes them look foolish in the eyes of Americans and the world. Take a look at the real news coming out of Muslim dominated countries they don't want peace they want it all.
sorta like the Germans in WWI giving safe passage to Russia for Lenin who got the revolution going and Russia outa the war. Taliban going to be hanging in there to take over unless the US keeps hanging in there at such a cost in treasure and lives.
Now wait a minute, guys, we may be getting this all wrong. If the Taliban goes to Chicago...well, they might just wind up polluting the Chicago River. They had certainly better stay out of garages on St. Valentine's Day. I mean, there are still some wiseguys there...and they are often very patriotic.
Next thing we'll be inviting them to Chicago, paying their airfare and putting them up in 5-star hotels. Does the US really think they can be trusted? If so, invite them to spend a month in the White House.
The worse part this entire thing is that we and every other non Islamic will always be the infidels to them. They live only for their groups and to either change or kill those that are not of their religion. It makes no difference to them. They will always try to kill or destroy anyone or thing they is not of their believes. You know how they tried to wipe out everyone and everything that was of ANY other religion in Afghanistan. They did care how historic it was the that other religion. They burned thousand of they other religions papers and bibles but, they have riots and killing because some Korans were burned. Their main way of life is kill it if it's not Islamic. They will always be exactly that way too. They always have been to date, why does this President think they might even consider changing now.
I knew this day was comming, I knew Barack Obama was going to sellout the United States to the middle east eventually. When the Taliban changes their policies after gaining control of Afganistan, who's going to look foolish? The country that had their top commanders in prison, and let them go, thats who! It not the first time we've looked like crap in the last 3 1/2 yrs
We already sell out to the Middle East buying fuel from them than countries we are allies with or using our own. Regardless, it's not selling out trying to negotiate a peace treaty with them, the alternative is continuing a war and losing more soldiers and local civilians who really don't want us there and are starting to prefer the Taliban; or have you not heard of the US soldiers pissing on the bodies of their people, the Qaran burnings or a soldier's psychotic killing spree of innocents. This is growing into an occupation no different than the Nazis' of the Middle East back in the day. I'd rather we'd concentrate defeating al Qaida and train the Afgan army to fight our mutual enemies to keep them our of their governement before we leave for good. If there is a possiblity for peace treaty, it's better than forcing more men and women to put on tan camo in a futile attempt to search and kill them all.
thisis absolute bullshiet,safe passage to hell is what they deserve, especially since the latest beheading of a doctor that was helping the people, how can you tell the good ones from the bad ones?
What we have is a fox and a hen house. Not much else needs saying.
If this president lets these guys go, he should be immediately impeached for actions against the United States
Does anyone remeber Kuwait? remeber when good ole Sadam Hussein took over that country ousted the leader we went in there and got that country back where the hell are they for us they have the most oil in the world Piss on them and everybody and i mean everybody f em all
bull@!$%#, bull@!$%#, bull@!$%#...treason
we should be prosecuting our congressmen and women immediately...no more $ to pakistan or afghanistan. it's against our national interest
i want msnbc to get a list of any congress person who votes to continue to give $ to these wars....it's against the law to continue with this mess..post it here and we will prosecute each one of them...do your damn job
Why is Mr taliban dressed like a chick? They should stone him for not having a male relative with him ..
Then only way our country will ever have any kind of peace will be after Obama is out of office. He is nothing more than another radical Muslim attempting to destroy our country. Negotiating with these asinine monsters shouldn't even be considered. Obama continues sending foreign aid to them knowing it will be given directly to the Taliban with his fondest wishes. This will help to provide them with ammunition, weapons, bombs and whatever they need to fight our armed forces.
Anyone that supports Obama is an idiot. He severely punishes our soldiers if they make negative comments about him but condones the blood thirsty killings and tortures that are inflicted on our soldiers. We are supposed to be nice and not offend them.
Send Obama over there and bring our troops home.
What is it going to take for all you Obama supporters to wise up and see Obama for what he REALLY is? I guess that if he walked out of the White House wearing a sheet around him and a towel wrapped around his head, you would fail to recognize him as the Muslim he is. He has told us every way possible that his father, his step-father and he himself were/are Muslims and believe in their religious beliefs.
Our country, our armed forces and we the taxpayers have suffered enough at his hands. We have to end the terrorism he has brought to our country that he has relished with the delight of a madman.
Stop Obama and elect a real American as our president so our country will be as great as it once was, if it isn't already too late.
So, what is he: a Muslim or a Communist? It would be conflicting if he was both. I wish you racist idiots make up your minds. Regardless if he is a Muslim or a Christian, he's a hell of alot better than the dicks you would vote for and there are only two Republicans now. It's wishful thinking if you believe Romney or Ron Paul (or Gingrinch or Bachman or Santorum or Perry) is going to balance our budget, improve our job market or end our conflicts with terrorists and dangerous countries. Even if they could, their enemies are solely within our own country -- anyone who isn't a straight, white, conservative Protestant/Catholic/Mormon.