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U.S. “agrees in principle” to release top Taliban prisoners, possibly to third country

Jan 4, 2012 5:35 am By Marisol Seibold

Earlier reports suggested they would be transferred to Afghan custody. This report also speculates about a possible prisoner exchange for the abducted U.S. soldier Bowe Bergdahl, but notes there is no clear indication that this arrangement is under discussion.

Instead, “the releases would be to reciprocate for Tuesday’s announcement from the Taliban that they are prepared to open a political office in Qatar to conduct peace negotiations.” So, once again, by all appearances, the U.S. is trading risky American actions for pledges from the Taliban.

“Taliban leaders held at Guantánamo Bay to be released in peace talks deal,” by Julian Borger and Jon Boone for the Guardian, January 3:

The US has agreed in principle to release high-ranking Taliban officials from Guantánamo Bay in return for the Afghan insurgents’ agreement to open a political office for peace negotiations in Qatar, the Guardian has learned.

The Taliban are set to be the beneficiaries of “negotiations” Homer Simpson described best: “You help me, and I, in turn, am helped by you.”

According to sources familiar with the talks in the US and in Afghanistan, the handful of Taliban figures will include Mullah Khair Khowa, a former interior minister, and Noorullah Noori, a former governor in northern Afghanistan.

More controversially, the Taliban are demanding the release of the former army commander Mullah Fazl Akhund. Washington is reported to be considering formally handing him over to the custody of another country, possibly Qatar.

The releases would be to reciprocate for Tuesday’s announcement from the Taliban that they are prepared to open a political office in Qatar to conduct peace negotiations “with the international community” — the most significant political breakthrough in ten years of the Afghan conflict.

The Taliban are holding just one American soldier, Bowe Bergdahl, a 25-year-old sergeant captured in June 2009, but it is not clear whether he would be freed as part of the deal.

“To take this step, the [Obama] administration have to have sufficient confidence that the Taliban are going to reciprocate,” said Vali Nasr, who was an Obama administration adviser on the Afghan peace process until last year. “It is going to be really risky. Guantánamo is a very sensitive issue politically.”

Nasr, now a professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, said the Taliban announcement on the opening of an office in Qatar was a dramatic breakthrough.

“If it had not happened then the idea of reconciliation would have been completely finished. The Qatar office is akin to the Taliban forming a Sinn Féin, a political wing to conduct negotiations,” Nasr said, but added: “The next phase will need concessions on both sides. This doesn’t mean we are now on autopilot to peace.”….

No kidding!

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Filed Under: Guantanamo, Qatar, Taliban


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