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Thursday, June 7, 2012

A role for Mecca in Afghanistan?, War on Terror, NewAgeIslam.com

War on Terror
A role for Mecca in Afghanistan?
By Michael Shank
14 October 2008

Talks with the Taliban were never a non-starter with the Afghan government, nor is Kabul’s careful communicative overture new. The Afghan ambassador to the United States, whom I interviewed this spring, cited “different degrees of engagement [with the Taliban] right now” and reaffirmed Kabul’s continued willingness to communicate. This tone and tactic has long been untenable for the US administration, and so Afghanistan has been left to its own dialogical devices.

But now even Robert Gates, the US Secretary of Defense, acknowledges that talks with the Taliban are necessary. “There has to be, ultimately, and I’ll underscore ‘ultimately’, reconciliation as part of a political outcome to this”, Gates said on Thursday. “That’s ultimately the exit strategy for all of us.”

The entrance of Saudi’s King Abdullah as acting arbiter, therefore, serves as a game-changer in the US-Afghanistan seven-year stalemate. Not only would Saudi-officiated talks save US face from a seeming capitulation, but Mecca is measurably more meritorious as neutral ground than Kabul could ever be.

http://newageislam.com/a-role-for-mecca-in-afghanistan?/war-on-terror/d/886


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