LONDON: The commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, US Gen. David Petraeus, admitted Friday that western troops have facilitated the safe passage of Taliban leaders to Kabul for talks with the government. US and International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops had helped insurgent commanders get to the Afghan capital as part of its support for Afghan President Hamid Karzai's negotiations with the rebels, he said. “There are certain ongoing initiatives in that regard,” Petraeus told an audience at the Royal United Services Institute in central London when asked about the state of negotiations with the hardline Islamist movement. “And indeed in certain respects we do facilitate that, given that, needless to say, it would not be the easiest of tasks for a senior Taliban commander to enter Afghanistan and make his way to Kabul if ISAF were not witting and therefore aware of it and allows it to take place,” Petraeus said. Karzai this month launched the High Council for Peace, the latest effort to persuade the Taliban and other insurgents to negotiate an end to the war which has entered its 10th year. The Taliban Wednesday denied a claim by Karzai that they were taking part in the talks, more than nine years after they were driven from power by a US-led invasion after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. But Petraeus, who also led the US “surge” in Iraq in 2007, said a number of key figures from the Taliban had also made contact with foreign forces in Afghanistan as well as with local authorities. – Agence France
