Hot air over Taliban talks

[bemildred]

KABUL - No politician or diplomat in Kabul, Afghan or Western, appears ready to talk to the one-eyed Taliban leader Mullah Omar or the "mad" Mullah Dadullah, who in any case are too busy fighting an insurgency and kidnapping foreigners to pay any attention.

But with Afghanistan's Taliban movement slowly expanding its grip across the east and south of the country, the idea of making "peace" with a fundamentalist Islamic movement still closely allied with Osama bin Laden is back on the table.

Last week, to the shock and dismay of many of the country's ethnic Tajiks, Afghan President Hamid Karzai announced publicly that he was in closed-door discussions with the Taliban. To whom precisely he was talking was left unmentioned.

The secrecy hasn't gone over well with Karzai's rivals. In an interview, Afghanistan's parliamentary Speaker, a key figure in a new anti-Karzai coalition, sounded infuriated. "For us, his admission last week that he has been talking to the Taliban comes as a complete surprise," said Younus Qanooni, kneading a set of ruby-red prayer beads in the posh salon in his home. "We were not informed about these closed-curtain talks."

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