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Subscribe to RSSISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- The United States and Afghanistan have agreed to "give safe passage" to representatives of the Afghan Taliban to help them to enter future peace talks, officials announced Friday.
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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they won't let me add the link, please search "trillions in mineral deposits found in Afghanistan" we will be there for generations to come, get use to it
I believe China already has contracts to extract a lot of those mineral deposits. We are essentially safe-guarding China's investment.
Negotiating with terrorists now? Great. Better not be any 'SAFE PASSAGE' for any Taliban beings on US Soil. Not ever!!!!!!! I support Afghan and all the other countries that are dealing with these radical nut cases doing whatever they feel they must to bring about goodness for their countries, but we are not suppose to be in the business of negotiating with radicals who take the writings of the Quaran and twist it to justify their perception of evil righteousness. When they honestly stand up and boldly declare that they have wronged innocents, have come to see the light, and will no longer train and brainwash youth, perhaps maybe forgiveness and reconciliation can start. But just to allow them a voice and possibly even a role in the future governing of lands, no flippin way! America should be more than cautiously aware of how Taliban operates.
Yeah, because when we leave, the Taliban will have no influence in Afghanistan's politics because we'll kill them all first, right ?
All we have to do is stay there until the job of eliminating every vestige of the Taliban and their followers is finished.
Good thinking.
No safe passage, no peace talks, and no US presence in Afghanistan. Just get out, there is nothing to gain there, no goal, and absolutely no justification for the lives and resources wasted there.
I can see it now, everyone is there for the meeting, in walks the Taliban Representative, then "BA BOOM"
Apparently you think your post is so clever that you need to repeat it.
Not very clever to the father of a Iraq/Afghanistan vet that came home with serious wounds from an IED.
Not to mention that no one, of course, would disarm and search these guys...
You get the low IQ award of the day.
"BA BOOM"
Somebody needs to remind the commic-in-chief sitting in the white house that sympathizing with the enemy and offering them safe passage while our troops are still in harms way is the act of a traitor. To the taliban, all non-muslims are infidels they have sworn to eradicate. When did the taliban call of jihad? A new slogan needs to be atributed to oba-mao, I have met the enemy of America and it is me.
Remember, a vote for obammy is an act of treason.
Obama, like Bush I, takes a practical, pragmatic, non-ideological approach to foreign policy. He doesn't start with the premise thay every country has to be a democratic state like the US, or else we invade.
Neo-cons and right-wing ideologues take the opposite approach. And the results have been disastrous.
Makes you wonder how, in all of America's wars, we managed to get treaties signed without negotiating with the enemy, doesn't it?
Guess Washington, Truman, et al were treasonous also.
This makes about as much sense as having a meeting with cockroaches. These people are stuck in the Old Testament era with emotional and moral I.Q.s of about 50- there is no way for these embeciles to even understand the concept of peaceful co-existance, much less desire it. It would be boring to them and they might actually have to do something useful with their lives instead of trying to make everyone in the world miserable.
safe passage to where?? the White House? more gate crashers?? maybe the president has a special medal of honor for them....
Did you even read the article dumbass?
we should just pull out and cut our losses ! this is a no win proposition and has been so from the start !
If barry had his way, he would fly them all to the White House for some of that $100 a pound steak he and moochelle have every night, then put them all on welfare...just goes to show what an enemy this ass clown is to this country.
Doesn't get much more stupid than that comment, but I'm confident you can top even that!
its time to get over this war and move on ! and cut the military budget while we are at to keep the US at home and no more foreign excursions !
Mark...spot on.
Man from Planet X...I'll give YOU a $100 steak dinner if you do us all a favor and go back to Planet X.
sounds great. give taliban leader a meeting with oboma. what a dumb thing to do or even agree to. taliban is not or will not ever have a people lead government and that was the main reason for this war.
oboma you are a dumbas-. sr.
just keep wasting tax payers moneys. you spend over 4 million a day travelling around campaigning for re-election. you should be in jail sr. this is wrong and you you should be in prison sr. you are worst than any taliban leader there is. you are killing this country from the inside.
very sad. day. mark this day as our trator president allows an enemy free pasage. are you kidding me.
and remember oboma are giving billions to the middle east of year so now we will be providing these folks. maybe the real story will come out. oboma is kin and has the same intentions as osoma.
i see the rightwing morons are out in force what a group of mental midgets !
Yes, the "United States will give safe passage"
Speak for yourself, Mr. Obama!!!!
While you and your administration terrorize or molest innocent Americans every hour of every day at our airports or travel spaces, and you admit to the international community that you intend to give safe passage to these that will and can kill us.
I hope all American soldiers serving overseas are privy to this article that undermines their security.
How could I have missed the obvious connection between the TSA operations here and negotiating with the Taliban?
Thanks for pointing it out.
I'm sorry, but that is a mighty pretty little pink dress that grown man with the beard has on under his green scarf ensemble. I love the lace and embroidery.
Vermontchick needs a job....he is a trained LIEberal and good at it so someone please hire him....his mom wants him out of the basement...the vaseline smell is over powering her...
I'm just amazed, and discouraged, that right wing wants so badly to stay in Afghanistan and continue killing our finest young men and women while accomplishing nothing.
You would think some of them anyway read and understand history. Invading and occupying countries come and go in Afghanistan, yet the Afghanis are still there and will be long after the US leaves. And maybe they do read but their hatred of Obama makes them think and act like petulant children who won't do the right thing even though everyone else in the world recognizes it as such.
mark, we are not talking about the Afghanis. The conversations is about the taliban. Get with the program. The restrictive rules of engagement (Do you know what rules of engagement are?) need to be lifted. If we are there to fight a war, let our military fight a war by freeing up their hands to do so. It is time to turn Stryker Force loose and let them do what we trained them for. Stop allowing the Afghanis who are being paid by the taliban to dictate how the war is fought there or just pull all out troops, equipment, and money out now. The taliban has declared jihad against all non-muslims or have you forgotten. There is no stipulation on their part as to where this jihad is carried out. All the ignorant people on here say they just want us to leave Afghanistan. That is more obammy BS. Jihad is worldwide. We either take them out in Afghanistan or face their covert aggersion on American soil while the attempt to carry out their sworn obligation to rid the world of all the infidels. You and I are targets of these finatics. Wake up. Remember the taliban are not the native people of Afghanistan. We went to Afghanistan to rid the country of the taliban. If we talk peace with them now so they can regroup and rebuild the finances and strength it is only a matter of time we will be fighting them here to rid America of them. That is the reality which the majority of the liberals in this country refuse to accept and face.
drk, Taliba are Afghanis. They will be there long after we leave, whenever that is.
There is so much history that shows we shoveling sh1t against the tide (ask the British, the Russians, and many other countries before them). At some point we will admit as much it and stop.
It's just a question of when do we admit it.
I don't agree with this move. It seems as we have negotiated with the Taliban in the past only to have them return to kill more of our soldiers.
And what are they doing now...killing our soldiers.
Why not do the obvious thing and leave?
Why do we keep cow-towing to our enemies? Are you kidding me? Who cares about Afghanistan anymore? maybe the US government is getting a kickback from the opium trade. Let Karzai and his corrupt cronies negotiate with the Taliban. Put on your big boy pants Karzai. We are not going to bail you out any longer is what we should be saying to him.
We're towing cows to our enemies, why?
Couldn't we just ship them there by truck or something ?
if anone is old enough to remember the U.S. Govt. did this with the NATIVE AMERICANS, then imprisoned them or found a way to KILL THEM!
Every once in a while, it's a good idea for leaders of both sides of a war to meet, and make sure what they're fighting over. Otherwise, it just goes on, and on and on.
As it is, we're just making the Taliban stronger and stronger, with each citizen killed, each Koran burned, every non-military building blown up gives them more recruits. More people who would fight and die to get rid of the invaders. Without us, the Taliban would be strong, then slowly start to erode from within. Slowly at first, then faster and faster until it would cease to exist, or be in a different form. See, religion needs to to be prosecuted, or it's power fades.
Countries like war, to flex it's muscles if it's that kind of country. Religions like a war they can spin is against (their) religion, it makes the rulers of the religion stronger, as more recruits join up.
Most people, however, don't have a lot of use for war. They don't even want to be millionaires or billionaires or movers and shakers. They want to have a home, raise kids, have food, security and little things in that line . Threaten that, or destroy any of that and you find out anyone can be enraged and turn blood-thirsty and warlike. Even liberals.
I try to keep my comments fairly short, so I'll leave it at that.
It's a relatively small group of right wing fanatics that want to stay in Afghanistan, and that group certainly doesn't include the soldiers deployed there or their families and friends.
It's the armchair warriors who have no skin in the game...heck they won't even pay for it with higher taxes, much less fight and die there.
mark, when was the last time you spoke with those that have boots on the ground in the middle east? Were your boots on the ground in the middle east? Those with skin in the game as you put it want the restrictions lifted off them so they can do their job. Remove the restrictive rules of engagement and let them take care of the taliban in the way they were trained to do so. Yes, my boots were on the ground in the middle east. You liberals make me sick. You are the armchair warriors with no knowledge of the things you speak. We don't need higher taxes to pay for the war there or anywhere else. We need to stop paying people like the Afghanis for the privilage of spilling American blood in the defense of their country then we would have plenty of money to fight their war.
Oh, come on, the United States does this all the time, and not just under Obama. How many times did that a-hole Ahma-what's-his-jad from Iran get "safe passage" to NYC to give his ridiculous speeches at the UN? Same for Castro.
Lets see Barrack Hussein Obama sounds like he is letting his relatives in if u ask me
No, he's trying to end a useless and costly war.
Not sure why you and the rest of the right wing don't, can't or won't understand that.
obama is just protecting his own... he has done nothing but apologize for our presence there from the beginning... negotiating with terrorists... key the clown music.
Who in their right mind would trust these people? Who ? Oh ya, the U.S.
Don't forget the 40% of the Afghan people that support the Taliban (mostly) because they want the US occupiers out of their country.
Bad move by President Obama as the Republicans will most undoubtedly use the attempt to create a peace as a move by Democrats to ally theirselves with the Taliban and terrorists.
Remember Ann Coulter's attacks during the Kerry/Bush campaign where she constantly blasted her extreme mouth off about how ALL Democrats were terrorists and actually supported the attackers on 9.11.01?
Get ready for Annie De Je Vu time from Fox News.
I personally think that the move is bad move not because it involves trying to broker a peace deal but because it will give the Taliban and Al Qeada forces time to rebuild their forces to launch more widescale and more devastating attacks.
The Taliban and Al Qeada forces only goal is too kill as many people as they can so they can impose their Islamic Law over the Earth. They are no different than other religions who try to force their religious doctrine over the Earth. The Taliban and Al Qeada are no different than David Koresh or Timothy McVeigh their only goal is to spread anti-government propoganda to make people fear the government , to fear their Constituitonal Freedoms, to instead come flocking to their dorms to to hear only the message that the false prophets want them to hear.
Peace brokering with the Taliban is a waste of time and we are only giving them more time to rebuild their forces.
The Taliban must also be moving a large bomb making factory somewhere where they would use the peace process to mask their movement.
Here comes the Ann Coulter Dems-are-terrorists-rant-o-thon.
this should not happen...I do not personally believe releasing Any detainees to Taliban is a good idea...I also personally believe they will not seek peace as their goal I believe they are only seeking a way to side-step Warcrime Charges and a New personality cover on the Planet to resume their Stated Goals of All Americans must die...I believe this is a new War on Us tactic and should not be happening...I call it The Battered United States Syndrome...they just keep on blowing us up, we keep taking them back and so on...A woman gets a divorce or dead in a simular syndrome...our country should strive for a simular "divorce" policy...have nothing to do with their countries, leave them alone, don't help them or try to change them and get a very explicit restraining order...that covers the Planet...they are a Bully society...I don't like Bullys!
What do you think we'll accomplish staying there another 10 years that we haven't already accomplished in the last 10 years.