British Prime Minister Plans Peace Talks With Taliban

Is the Afghanistan War, like the Iraq War, now drawing to a close for Western military forces?

A report in the UK Independent claims that British PM, Gordon Brown, is preparing for preliminary peace talks with the Taliban, through Afghanistan's President Karzai :

As the deadliest year in Afghanistan since the US-led invasion in 2001 comes to a close, Gordon Brown is ready to talk to the Taliban in a major shift in strategy that is likely to cause consternation among hardliners in the White House.

Six years after British troops were first deployed to oust the Taliban regime, the Prime Minister believes the time has come to open a dialogue in the hope of moving from military action to consensus-building among the tribal leaders. Since 1 January, more than 6,200 people have been killed in violence related to the insurgency, including 40 British soldiers. In total, 86 British troops have died. The latest casualty was Sergeant Lee Johnson, whose vehicle hit a mine before the fall of Taliban-held town of Musa Qala.

The Cabinet yesterday approved a three-pronged plan that Mr Brown will outline for security to be provided by Nato's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) and the Afghan national army, followed by economic and political development in Afghanistan.

But the intention to engage Taliban leaders in a constructive dialogue, which Mr Brown will make clear in a parliamentary statement today, will be by far the most controversial element of the plan. A senior Downing Street source confirmed the move last night and one Brown aide who accompanied the Prime Minister on his recent visit to Kabul, said: "We need to ask who are we fighting? Do we need to fight them? Can we be talking to them?"

Senior government officials said it was an error to see the Taliban as a unified organisation rather than as a disparate group of Afghan tribesmen, often farmers recruited at the end of the gun, infiltrated by foreign fighters. The aim is to divide the Taliban's local support from al-Qa'ida and militants from Pakistan.

The shift of strategy will place the onus to deliver on Hamid Karzai, the Afghan President, who will take the lead in opening discussions with Taliban leaders through provincial governors.

"Musa Qala was a good example of what we are planning – once the town was stabilised, people were ready to appoint judges, local police chiefs, start laying on services and putting in power lines," said the No 10 source. "But the Afghan government has got to demonstrate they can deliver an alternative strategy."

The dialogue strategy is the latest attempt by Mr Brown to distance himself from the military legacy of the Blair era and the hardline instincts of President George Bush.

At the weekend, the Prime Minister made a surprise visit to Basra in southern Iraq and announced that the British handover of control of the region to local Iraqi forces would be completed within two weeks. British soldiers' combat role will then cease, as they move to an "overwatch" role, and retreat to Basra Air Station.

The determination to draw a line under the Bush-Blair years is threatening to heighten tensions between No 10 and the hardline neocons who still dominate the White House. The pace of the Basra handover has already caused dismay in hawkish Washington circles. The administration was also sceptical of the British deal with tribal elders that led to Musa Qala falling into the hands of the Taliban earlier this year...with Mr Bush in the final year of his presidency, his influence on events on the ground is waning.

A source at Number 10 Downing Street told the Independent that there had been "full consultation with the White House, and they have been talked through all of this."

The NeoCons will go nuts. US, British and Australian forces preparing to withdraw from Iraq, talks like with the Taliban in Afghanistan, and their plans to kick off a new 'War On Terror' front in Iran derailed by US Intelligence agencies and serving and retired generals in the US Army.

The UK Independent also has a short history of the Afghanistan War, from the POV of the
British military :

October 2001

The US and Britain begin air strikes when Taliban refuses to give up Osama bin Laden after 11 September. Taliban leader Mullah Omar flees.

December 2001

Interim government created under US-backed President Hamid Karzai.

January 2002

Peacekeepers arrive in the form of Nato's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf). Britain leads force's first mission.

September 2002

Assassination attempt made against President Karzai.

April 2004

Britain accused by US of bungling its command of international campaign to rid Afghanistan of opium poppy in southern Helmand province amid unprecedented increase in heroin production.

January 2006

3,300 UK forces sent to Helmand as Isaf takes over military operations in the south. In May, UK takes charge of Isaf, which is kept separate from US hunt for Taliban leaders and Bin Laden.

August 2006

Fighting in Afghanistan described as "worse than the Korean war" by Isaf commander.

December 2007

British soldier killed in fight to recapture Musa Qala, an opium bazaar town in Helmand, bringing total British death toll to 86 since 2001. Britain currently has more than 6,000 troops in Afghanistan.

The United States has around 25,000 soldiers in Afghanistan. NATO countries contribute another 20,000 soldiers.


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Iran Frees British Sailors And Marines

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Syria Claims It Helped Resolve Standoff Between Iran And Britain



15 British military personnel detained for almost two weeks in Iran, after being captured by the Iranian coast guard in disputed waters in the Persian Gulf, have been released by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The Iranian president said the act of pardoning the British sailors and giving them their freedom was a "gift" to their families, and the UK, for Easter.

Ahmadinejad made the announcement during a two hour speech in Tehran, during which he decorated the Iranian coast guard crews who captured the Brits. He claimed even though the Royal Navy sailors and Royal Marines had violated "Iranian territorial waters", he was prepared to forgive them and let them go back to their families.

All 15 Britons are expected to arrive home tonight, after being moved to the British Embassy compound in the Iranian capital :

"This pardon is a gift to the British people," the President said, observing that it falls between the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad last weekend and the celebration of Easter.

"On the occasion of the birthday of the great prophet and for the occasion of the passing of Christ, I say the Islamic Republic government and the Iranian people — with all powers and legal right to put the soldiers on trial — forgave those 15."

The Iranian president said he was asking PM Tony Blair not to judge the sailors and marines for their televised "confessions", where they said they had violated Iranian waters, while checking out ships suspected of smuggling cars into Iraq.

"(Do not) judge the military personnel for the truths that they said," he said, referring to the televised "confessions".

The President says the British Government has promised not to repeat the incident which saw the sailors' captured.

"The British Government, in a letter, has vowed not to repeat such incidents. But this release is not linked to this letter. It is due to Islamic goodwill,"

The Iranian president used the speech to blast British Prime Minister Tony Blair for allowing women, and in particular a mother of young children, to go to the front lines of the Iraq War.

"Why is the most difficult task, patrolling in the sea, given to a woman? How can you justify seeing a mother away from her home, her children? Why don’t they respect family values in the West?

Faye Turney is the young mother the Iranian president referred to, and the Iranian news agency, Fars, claims she burst into tears when she heard the president's words.

Turney became the most public face of the crisis back in the UK, and while the unfolding drama, and diplomatic stand-off continued, receiving wall to wall coverage in the British media, it did not incite mass anger or outrage.

Britons, for the most part, did not appear concerned that the sailors and marines would face execution, as some right-wing American media propagandized would happen while furiously beating the drums for war on Iran.

The Iranian president used the dramatic announcement to press his case that Iran does not want war with the West, but peace :

"We are really distraught that British youths join the army to earn a living and then, thousands of miles away, they get arrested. We don't want this to happen," he added.

"We invite everyone to worship one God with compassion, humanity, where there is loyalty and justice so that people will love one another."

Negotiations between Britain and Iranian diplomats were said to have been intense, with Iran demanding Britain officially apologise for "violating" Iranian territory, and the British disputing that claim while trying to tamp down any talk of threats of retaliatory action, outside of complaining to the United Nations Security Council about the incident.

When Ahmadinejad met the British sailors and marines, shortly before setting them free, he joked to them : "So you came on a mandatory vacation..."

To the absolute shock, and no doubt fury, of American NeoCons, one of the captured marines, Captain Chris Air, was seen on Iranian television happily greeting the Iranian president, saying :

"We're very grateful for your forgiveness. On behalf of the group I'd like to thank yourself and the Iranian people."

Syria, meanwhile, claims it played a key role in settling the dispute between Iran and Britain :

"Syrian efforts and the Iranian willingness culminated with the release of the British sailors," said Information Minister Mohsen Bilal.

He said Syria had been asked "to help positively in the issue..."

Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem told reporters that "Syria exercised a sort of quiet diplomacy to solve this problem and encourage dialogue" between Britain and Iran.

The Washington Times, the Bush Dynasty's "favourite newspaper" claims that an Iranian diplomat detained in Iraq was freed as part of the negotiations to have the British sailors released :

Diplomat Jalal Sharafi arrived in Tehran yesterday, hours after he was freed by his captors in Iraq, officials said. He was seized Feb. 4 by uniformed gunmen in Karradah, a Shi'ite-controlled district of Baghdad.

Iran said the diplomat had been abducted by an Iraqi military unit commanded by U.S. forces -- a charge repeated by several Iraqi Shi'ite lawmakers. U.S. authorities denied any role in his disappearance.

In Baghdad, an Iraqi Foreign Ministry official said the Iraqi government had exerted pressure on those holding Mr. Sharafi to release him -- but he would not identify the diplomat's captors.

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