Karzai's Plan to Negotiate with the Taliban - SPIEGEL

Last week, Afghan President Hamid Karzai traveled to Washington to seek support from Barack Obama for his plan to reconcile with the Taliban and forge a path to peace in the war-torn country. SPIEGEL has obtained a copy of his secret peace plan, which foresees reintegrating Taliban fighters into Afghan society.

Baheer is one of Hekmatyar's closest confidantes. US special forces captured him in October 2002, but Afghan President Hamid Karzai personally intervened to ensure his release. After six months in the "salt pit" and a further five-and-a-half years at the US military prison camp at Baghram, Karzai's workers pulled him out of the jail and drove him to dinner at the president's palace in Kabul. It was the start of rapprochement talks with Hekmatyar's radical Islamist group Hezb-i-Islami, which the president is continuing to conduct now.

The Americans and the Karzai administration both agree widely that the three most important Pashtun groups, namely followers of Mullah Omar, Hekmatyar and Jalaluddin Haqqani, who were absent at the first international conference on the future of Afghanistan that took place in Germany in December 2001, must also be given a place in Afghan society in the future.

Nevertheless, a delegation of Hekmatyar's Hezb-i-Islami, led by his son-in-law Baheer, made an initial peace offer to Karzai in March. In a 15-page program, which SPIEGEL has also obtained, the group calls for the "complete withdrawal" of Western troups within six months, starting in July 2010, as well as new elections and the release of all political prisoners.

In exchange, they are offering a cease-fire and the breaking-off of ties with al-Qaida fighters. Now the possibility is being discussed of Hekmatyar going into exile in Saudi Arabia for a few years and Baheer being appointed as a minister in Karzai's cabinet. .... Karzai's Plan to Negotiate with the Taliban

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