Obama blamed for Taliban impasse

Chris Sands, Foreign Correspondent

• Last Updated: September 13. 2009 10:18PM UAE / September 13. 2009 6:18PM GMT

Arsalan Rahmani, a senator in the upper house of parliament in Kabul. Chris Sands / The National

KABUL // Peace talks with the Taliban were severely undermined by the US president Barack Obama’s decision to send more troops to Afghanistan, an official involved in the discussions has warned.

Arsalan Rahmani, a senator in the upper house of parliament in Kabul, said there had been progress until the new US administration started deploying an extra 21,000 soldiers earlier this year.

“They made a big mistake. Obama’s strategy has not been good. They came here and pushed the fighting and it has damaged our negotiations a lot,” he said.

Afghanistan is currently going through its bloodiest phase since the occupation began, with civilians and troops dying at record levels. Insurgents have recently staged a number of attacks inside the capital and appear to be taking new ground across the north, far away from their natural heartland.

Last week, the International Council on Security and Development claimed the Taliban now have a permanent presence in 80 per cent of the country, up from 72 per cent the previous year.

Mr Rahmani believes the blame for much of this can be placed squarely at the feet of the United States, warning that “the fighting will get worse” if Washington agrees to send even more soldiers.

Having served as the deputy minister of higher education and minister of religious affairs during the Taliban regime, he understands the mindset of the insurgency better than most. That is why the Afghan government invited him to return from Pakistan four years ago, with the specific task of trying to open up a dialogue. He consulted with senior rebel commanders before making a decision.

“I met with all the Taliban leaders. I asked them what they thought. They agreed, so I came,” he said.

“I told the president of Afghanistan I was working here because the Taliban agreed to it and I was following their idea. I told him, ‘I am not working for your government’.”

Mr Rahmani has continued in this role ever since, with mixed results. He holds the talks indirectly, exchanging messages through third parties. Mullah Brother has been involved but the movement’s spiritual leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, has not.

The negotiations have focused on fairly small issues, such as the imprisonment of men in the US military detention centres at Bagram and Guantanamo Bay, and attacks on schools by the insurgents.

Even these minor steps forward are now under threat as the rebels respond to the US surge with their own escalation.

“We can see the Taliban have also pushed their fighting and there has been a lot of damage to the international forces. I do not know exactly how many soldiers are being killed because not all the deaths are reported,” said Mr Rahmani.

The war had, he added, also expanded into different areas of Afghanistan and beyond the country’s borders.

“The situation is more open for the Taliban to fight. In Pakistan there is Quetta, Balochistan, Swat, Buner, Bajaur and Mohmand agency. So the areas are growing where the Taliban can do their operations,” he said.

The US, British and Afghan governments have expressed a willingness to talk to the Taliban and involve them in the political process. Indeed, there is a common belief in the international community that the majority of rebels are motivated by poverty or petty grievances, rather than hardcore ideological goals. Mr Rahmani, however, said the ranks of the insurgency were now being swollen with al Qa’eda-linked militants from places including Chechnya, Iraq and Kashmir.

Meanwhile, he described the Taliban as being firmly united. “The people who are dead and the people who are alive are all one,” he said.

Last year it emerged that negotiations had taken place in Saudi Arabia between representatives of the Taliban and Afghan officials. Mr Rahmani attended, although he again emphasised that there had been no direct face-to-face discussions between himself and any insurgents.

The senator from Paktika province believes the only possible way forward is for talks to be held on equal terms. International conferences, like the one in Bonn in late 2001, will also never work, he claimed.

“It has no meaning when [the president Hamid] Karzai asks the Taliban to come to join with us. He should ask them, ‘come here and then together we will see what the Afghan people need, what we need and what you need, then we can make a good government’. But he does not ask them like that. Karzai says ‘just put your weapons down and come to us’ and the Taliban say ‘bring all the world here and then see if we are coming or not’. This is where the problem lies,” he said.

csands@thenational.ae