KABUL: Elements of the Taliban are open to talks with the Afghangovernment, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Tuesday as he arrivedin Kabul on an unannounced visit.
Mattis flew into the war-torn city two weeks after Afghan President AshrafGhani unveiled a plan to open peace talks with the Taliban, Afghanistan’sbiggest militant group.
Mattis also said he had seen some changes in Pakistan’s behaviour sinceTrump blasted the country last year for harbouring the Taliban. “There areoperations by the Pakistan military that are helping right now, ongoing aswe speak,” he said.
The insurgents have so far given no formal response to Kabul’s offer fornegotiations, but Mattis said some Taliban leaders have expressed aninterest in the discussions. “It may not be that the whole Taliban comesover in one fell swoop, that would be a bridge too far, but there areelements of the Taliban clearly interested in talking to the Afghangovernment,” he told reporters aboard a military jet.
Ghani’s peace plan includes eventually recognising the Taliban as apolitical party. The group has said it is prepared to negotiate, but onlywith the United States and not with the Kabul government.
The Taliban last week described the Afghan government as “illegitimate” andits peace process efforts as “deceptive”, in a statement calling for aboycott of an Islamic scholars conference in Jakarta. “Right now we wantthe Afghans to lead and to provide the substance of the reconciliationeffort,” Mattis said.
Brigadier General Michael Fenzel, planning director for NATO’s mission inAfghanistan, said he had seen plenty of signals that some among the Talibanwere willing to negotiate. “In each one of our areas, there are groups of10 and 20 that are coming in, not wanting to be a part of the Taliban anylonger,” Fenzel told reporters.
Thanks to the political process, Mattis said America was now lookingtowards victory in Afghanistan after more than 16 years of conflict. “Whatdoes that victory look like? It’s a country whose own people and their ownsecurity forces handle law enforcement and any threats … certainly withinternational support for some years to come,” he said.
The US has renewed its focus on Afghanistan after years of drawdowns underformer president Barack Obama and talk by top US generals of “not winning”and of a “stalemate” in the seemingly intractable conflict. “It’s allworking to achieve a political reconciliation, not a military victory,”Mattis said. “The victory will be a political reconciliation.”
As part of the so-called South Asia Strategy, President Donald Trump lastyear ordered the increased bombing of Taliban targets — includingdrug-making labs and training camps. Trump’s strategy has been a “gamechanger” for Afghanistan, Ghani told Mattis in a meeting at thepresidential palace that also involved Afghan Chief Executive AbdullahAbdullah and Defence Minister Tariq Shah Bahrami. “It has forced everyactor to re-examine their assumptions. Some of that re-examination islikely to lead to the intensification of conflict in the short term but there-examination is what the people of Afghanistan have been waiting for 40years,” he said.
Ghani’s offer of peace talks comes as civilian casualties have soared inrecent months, with the Taliban increasingly targeting towns and cities inresponse to Trump´s more aggressive military policy.
Mattis said the jump in attacks on civilians was an indication that apressured Taliban is unable to conduct broader, ground-taking operations.The Afghan security forces were able to stop some attacks, Mattis said,though he noted he wanted to see them shift to a more “offensive mindset”in the coming months.
Mattis’s surprise Afghan visit, his third as Pentagon chief, was kept undertight wraps after a security incident during his last trip in September,when insurgents shelled Kabul’s airport hours after he arrived. APP/AFP