REUTERS(OCT.2010):Afghan Peace Council flexible on Taliban talks terms

Afghan Peace Council flexible on Taliban talks terms

KABUL | Thu Oct 14, 2010 2:04pm EDT

(Reuters) - The chief of Afghanistan's High Peace Council said on Thursday he is willing to be flexible about tough preconditions laid down by President Hamid Karzai when he and colleagues start trying to mediate with Taliban insurgents.

Burhanuddin Rabbani, picked this week to lead the council, said there was growing understanding in Karzai's government and among Western nations of the need to find a political settlement to a war now in its tenth year.

Karzai, Afghanistan's leader since the Taliban's ouster in 2001, has long advocated talking to insurgents but always said they must first renounce violence, cut ties with al Qaeda, and accept the new Afghan constitution. Washington has emphasized similar conditions as its "red lines" for the talks.

But Karzai said last week the council has full independence and authority in its efforts to start talks with the Taliban, which some council members see as a sign the president is willing to endorse a softening of terms for negotiation.

Rabbani said he would be willing to compromise if the Taliban and other militants would come to the table.

"During the negotiations, it is possible to show flexibility on some issues which look complicated and difficult," Rabbini said when asked whether tough preconditions would discourage the Taliban from joining talks.

"Perhaps new issues will arise during the negotiations to allow us success."

NATO and Afghan officials have confirmed preliminary contacts between Karzai's government and the Taliban, although a spokesman for the insurgents has dismissed reports of negotiations as propaganda and rejected Karzai's peace council. They demand all foreign troops leave before they will sit down for any talks.

"Tough stances are part of negotiations at the beginning when issues are discussed by two sides. We should not be disappointed by such statements," said Rabbini, a former Afghan president.

Rabbani, whose political faction once fought the Taliban, said the 70-member council is still drafting its strategy for starting talks with the Taliban and other insurgents.

EXPERIENCED NEGOTIATOR

Rabbani is seen as a mature, skilled politician as well as an experienced negotiator who may be able to reach out to adversaries across the complex network of Afghan powerbrokers.

Like many of the Taliban, Rabbani is an Islamic cleric and held talks with some members of the movement in recent years, despite his forces helping Washington in the Taliban's ouster.

He was once the leader of a powerful mujahideen party during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, and served as president in the 1990s when mujahideen factions waged a bloody war for control that ended with the Taliban's rise to power.

With the spread of Taliban attacks, rising casualties, and sagging support in Western capitals for the Afghan war, Karzai in June won approval from a tribal gathering to form a High Peace Council to seek a negotiated end to the conflict.

The insurgency is now at its bloodiest since 2001, despite the presence of 150,000 foreign troops, and there is a growing sense both at home and among many of Afghanistan's allies that talks may be the only route to peace.