Chidambaram meets Taliban cleric

[kseeker]

I wrote this on my blog

Is India opening up to Taliban?

Who would have thought India will see a Taliban leader getting a visa to India and sharing a platform with an Indian Union Minister? Well it has happened when Mulla Abdul Salam Zaeef was invited for the Think India meet in Goa where Mr P Chidambaram was also present.

Abdul Salam Zaeef was once the Ambassador to Pakistan of Taliban regime. After 9/11, he was handed over by Pakistan to the US and was in Guantanamo Bay prison where he is alleged have to be kept in bad condition and tortured. Mysteriously he was released and found his way back to Kabul then UAE and even Saudi Arabia. He was considered close to Mullah Omar and thought to be a more moderate face of the Taliban. Currently living with heavy protection in Kandahar.

Zaeef has in the past held negotiations with the Saudis although he denies any peace talks ever happened. Zaeef has in the past called for a reconciliation and a unity government and says there can be no peace in Afghanistan without the Taliban being involved.

It is possible that with 2014 US troop withdrawal in sight and with the US looking for all possibilities including dealing with Taliban as seen from the botched Doha plan where Taliban was allowed to open an office,India too could be looking at the possibilities of dealing with Taliban or some fraction within it considering there is a chance of political instability in Afghanistan after Karzai leaves office along with US drawdown.India has invested over $2 billion in Afghanistan and is keen to protect its commercial as well as strategic interests.

Mullah Zaeef probably presents a "good" avenue for India in this regard. He holds bitterness against Pakistan as it handed him over to the US and spent time in Gitmo. Its possible that India views his bitterness against Pakistan and acceptance within the Taliban as a good enough reason to ipen a dialog with him. This is off course a departure from the past as India has opposed any talks with Taliban and said there is nothing like a good Taliban. But considering the geopolitical reality,India may be now looking at the option of giving the Taliban a chance especially with fears within he security establishment that after US withdrawal from Afghanistan,the "victorious" Taliban,unemployed an looking for new "mission" could target India and infiltrate into Kashmir.

Its also possible that India is under US pressure to find ways to deal with the Taliban after the failure of Doha.Zaeef may present a less rigid face of Taliban and not the cocky ones that flew Taliban flags in Doha.

Its possible that the government will deny any talks with Taliban but given the UPA's penchant for track II talks,its possible that India is indeed talking with Taliban. Karzai with whom India has signed a security pact is not going to appreciate this.But given the fact that Zaeef lives in Kandahar, and Karzais own attempts to find peace, its possible that Karzai knows about India's track II talks and possibly has his approval.


Is India opening up to Taliban? | Sarvatra Vijay

Nice article Yusuf.

However IMO, you are being little too optimistic in this regard...

I really wish things would turn out to be in favour of our nation and not the other way around since, we have a proven history of believing CONmen time and again.

 

[kseeker]

what comes next is zaid hamid showing this as proof that raw is behind all terrorist activities in pakistan

good one.

 

[Ray]

Getting annoying how are foreign policy is being run according to party politics while the nation suffers. Latest being the lankan fiasco due to tamil parties. What does secularism have to do with this ?

@messiah,

Good point.

what has secularism got to do with it?

Likewise, what has this of yours got to do with secularism?

Just to let you know there are two talibans according to pakistan so they wouldn't be pleased with this but our retarded wankers are only seeing elections. Tell me retards when enemies of taliban ie usa, iran and china can meet with them why not us ? It is because of clowns like those who foam at such things that our foreign policy is in tatters because cock sucking of party > national interest

And why use offensive words?

Whether there are two, three of hundred different Talibans, who care in India.

All in India care is that these chaps in the name of religion and flag bearers of Islam are carrying out terrorism.

That upsets Indian, well a large majority at least, when the name 'Taliban' comes into view.

And you feel they are retards who lactate penis?

It is fine that you find some comfort zone, but not all, I am afraid.

I don't too.

But I understand that there is some good reasons why it is being done.

In my post, that you seem to have been upset with, do show where 'secularism' comes into play.

Is worrying about the Taliban something that is anti secularism?

 

[Ray]

Getting annoying how are foreign policy is being run according to party politics while the nation suffers. Latest being the lankan fiasco due to tamil parties. What does secularism have to do with this ? parties bashing each other to score points is one thing but on a defense forum one expects better giving due weightage to realpolitik. India must be open to talk with anyone if it is in its interest, nehruvian idealism got us no where in the international arena so its time we shed this nonsense and get real. congress-bjp-regional parties tu tu mein mein has made our foreign policy inept. The same people roving mad about this incident loud israel and claim we should be like them..then let them be reminded that israel also made deals with hamas when plo was calling the shots back in the day, same israel sent weapons to iran..they are pragmatic while we are not but when a step is taken in the right direction so called pseudo nationalists start bashing that too. geopolitics is not black and white

It is not the political tu tu mai mai that has made Indian Foreign Affairs inept, moribund, supine and cowardly.

It is pure stupidity and lack of Vision.

There was Vision and resolute leadership with a robust foreign policy, not prone to kowtowing, as in 1971 or when the nuke blast were done, there.

Heard of any tu tu mai mai then?

if not, why not, even though both these events were cataclysmic for a poverty stricken country and dangerous to international peace!

Now, we are a spine bereft nation buffeted by all and sundry.

That instils pride in you?

It doesn't to me and I am no pseudo nationalist because I stood vigil on the post to give the blanket of security that allows pseudo nationalists to vent their bile with the Dutch courage and go off their top to denigrate others without giving facts to state so, but mere gut feeling as the God's own proof!

You find Israel an anathema to your vision of India's relationship?

Well, they give us weapons and we are clever enough, thanks to Narshimha Rao, that we are equally at peace with the Arabs to get their oil!

Israel made deals with Hamas on their terms. PLO never called any shots any time. Even the Intifada was a failure.

Israel sent weapons to Iran. Correct. But why are you being economical with the truth?

Who was ruling Iran then?

There lies the answer.

And then later, why?

Anecdotes abound in the world press relating to Israeli sales to Iran:

* In March 1982, the New York Times cited documents indicating that Israel had supplied half or more of all arms reaching Tehran in the previous 18 months, amounting to at least $100 million in sales. Guess why?

* Foreign intelligence sources told Aerospace Daily in August 1982 that Israel's support was "crucial" to keeping Iran's air force flying against Iraq.

* An alleged former CIA agent reportedly visited Israel in 1982, met with the chief of staff of the Israeli Defense Forces and head of military intelligence, and "struck a deal with them involving the transfer of weapons and equipment, captured by Israel during the Lebanon war, to Iran." Guess why?

* Israeli sources told Newsweek that "they sold the Iranians much of the light weaponry and ammunition that the Israeli army had captured during its invasion of Lebanon; subsequently, they sold overhauled jet engines, spare parts for American-made M-48 tanks, ammunition and other hardware-S100 million worth in 1983 alone." Guess why?

* Newsweek also reported that after an Iranian defector landed his F-4 Phantom jet in Saudi Arabia in 1984, intelligence experts determined that many of its parts had originally been sold to Israel, and had then been re-exported to Tehran in violation of U.S. Iaw. Guess why?

* In 1984 and early 1985, a single one of Israel's many European brokers, based in Sweden, reportedly shipped hundreds of tons of TNT and other explosives to Iran, often by way of Argentina, worth 500 million kroner. Guess why?

* The Milan weekly Panorama reported that Israel had sold the Khomeini regime 45,000 Uzi submachine guns, antitank missile launchers, missiles, howitzers and aircraft replacement parts. "A large part of the booty from the PLO during the 1982 Lebanon campaign wound up in Tehran," the magazine claimed. Guess why?

* Manila newspapers have reported since the Irangate scandal broke that former armed forces chief of staff Gen. Fabian Ver, a crony of Ferdinand Marcos, supplied phony end user certificates to allow Israeli intermediaries to divert U.S. arms to Iran in 1984. Guess why?

 

[Poseidon]

what possibly taliban might have got in return ?

No Indian boots on the soil.