Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan said Monday that high-level Taliban leaders had reached out to senior Afghan government officials in an effort to start reconciliation talks.
For months, efforts at reconciliation have been stalled at every level, and this was the first explicit public suggestion that there was extensive behind-the-scenes contact.
"There are very high-level Taliban leaders who have sought to reach out to the highest levels of the Afghan government and, indeed, have done that," Petraeus said.
The conditions of Afghan President Hamid Karzai for reconciling "are very clear ... and, certainly, we support them as we did in Iraq, as the U.K. did in Northern Ireland. This is how you end these kinds of insurgencies," Petraeus said. The conditions include that the Taliban respect the country's constitution and lay down its arms. NEW YORK TIMES
