Quickly degenerating from bad to worse: “UN envoy urges Obama to talk to Taliban,” from the Daily Times, March 22:
PARIS: United States President Barack Obama should start a dialogue with the Taliban in Afghanistan, a top United Nations (UN) envoy said in a newspaper interview on Saturday.
Obama had earlier said he was open to the idea of reaching out to moderate elements of the Taliban.
“I am favourable to that. Reconciliation is an essential element. But it is important to talk to the people who count,” Kai Eide, the UN special envoy to Afghanistan, told France’s Le Monde newspaper. “A fragmented approach to the insurgency will not work. You need to be ambitious and include all the Taliban movement.”