West should have engaged Taliban in '02

The deputy commander of the US-led foreign forces in Afghanistan says the West should have tried holding talks with the Taliban a decade ago when they had been ousted from power.

General Nick Carter said in an interview with the British daily the Guardian, published on Friday, that it would have been much easier to reach a political solution with the Taliban when they had been on the run.

Å“Back in 2002, the Taliban were on the run. I think that at that stage, if we had been very prescient, we might have spotted that a final political solution to what started in 2001, from our perspective, would have involved getting all Afghans to sit at the table and talk about their future,” the commander said.

Carter added Å“The problems that we have been encountering over the period since then are essentially political problems, and political problems are only ever solved by people talking to each other.”

An important conference on the future of Afghanistan was held in the German city of Bonn more than a decade ago. However, the conference did not include the defeated former Taliban government of Afghanistan.

Carter further said that Afghan forces will require western military and financial support for several years after the planned withdrawal of the US-led combat troops from Afghanistan in 2014.

On June 18, the Taliban militant group opened its new political office in the Qatari capital of Doha under the name of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan as a venue for peace talk.

The Afghan government has reacted angrily to the opening of the office, which is backed by the United States.

The Afghan government, which says wants to lead any talks with the militants, has demanded a full explanation as to how Washington and Doha allowed the Taliban to raise its flag over the office in the Qatari capital.

Furthermore, reports show that most Afghan people believe any talks with the Taliban should be led by Afghan officials and not the West.

MR/HN/HJL