An Afghan security official told TOLOnews on Tuesday that Pakistan’s spy agency is scheming to move Taliban leader Mullah Omar from Pakistan to Helmand province and then report his whereabouts to U.S. forces.
The Pakistanis hope Omar is killed on Afghan soil because it will prove terrorist leaders are also hiding in Afghanistan, the source claimed. The same Afghan official said Omar received the ISI order to leave Quetta from former Pakistani spy chief Hamid Gul.
Such a development would disrupt the negotiations reportedly underway between the U.S. and the Taliban. According to the Washington Post, a U.S. representative attended at least three meetings in Qatar and Germany within the last eight or nine days with a Taliban official who is close to Mullah Omar.
U.S. officials claim “exploratory” conversations which began in February have advanced significantly in terms of substance and willingness to engage. The commencement of dialogue predated the Osama bin Laden assassination, but the death of the Al Qaeda leader has put more pressure on insurgent leaders to compromise, experts say.
Rumors of the talks have been chastised by critics who believe that such negotiations will compromise Afghan democracy because it appears Kabul and Washington are seriously considering bestowing the Taliban with whatever the insurgents consider an “acceptable share of political power.” This would undermine Afghan self-determination by handing over partial control of Afghanistan to the Taliban without the consent of the governed.
Afghan native Khalil Nouri, co-founder of the New World Strategies Coalition (NWSC) commented today in The Huffington Post that “there can only be one legitimate way to obtain stability in Afghanistan; through an all Afghan national ratification of a reconciliation process”. Afghans like Nouri believe neither the U.S. nor the Karzai administration has the legitimacy or the proper mandate to negotiate a settlement on behalf of the Afghan people.
An American official reported that “the Afghans have been fully briefed” on U.S.-Taliban contacts and “the Pakistanis only partially so” because the Obama administration is now of the mind that negotiation with the Quetta Shura does not require Pakistan’s cooperation. One senior administration official was even quoted as saying:
The Pakistanis hope Omar is killed on Afghan soil because it will prove terrorist leaders are also hiding in Afghanistan, the source claimed. The same Afghan official said Omar received the ISI order to leave Quetta from former Pakistani spy chief Hamid Gul.
Such a development would disrupt the negotiations reportedly underway between the U.S. and the Taliban. According to the Washington Post, a U.S. representative attended at least three meetings in Qatar and Germany within the last eight or nine days with a Taliban official who is close to Mullah Omar.
U.S. officials claim “exploratory” conversations which began in February have advanced significantly in terms of substance and willingness to engage. The commencement of dialogue predated the Osama bin Laden assassination, but the death of the Al Qaeda leader has put more pressure on insurgent leaders to compromise, experts say.
Rumors of the talks have been chastised by critics who believe that such negotiations will compromise Afghan democracy because it appears Kabul and Washington are seriously considering bestowing the Taliban with whatever the insurgents consider an “acceptable share of political power.” This would undermine Afghan self-determination by handing over partial control of Afghanistan to the Taliban without the consent of the governed.
Afghan native Khalil Nouri, co-founder of the New World Strategies Coalition (NWSC) commented today in The Huffington Post that “there can only be one legitimate way to obtain stability in Afghanistan; through an all Afghan national ratification of a reconciliation process”. Afghans like Nouri believe neither the U.S. nor the Karzai administration has the legitimacy or the proper mandate to negotiate a settlement on behalf of the Afghan people.
An American official reported that “the Afghans have been fully briefed” on U.S.-Taliban contacts and “the Pakistanis only partially so” because the Obama administration is now of the mind that negotiation with the Quetta Shura does not require Pakistan’s cooperation. One senior administration official was even quoted as saying: