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A2 UP FRONT
Monday 5 March 2018

US, Afghan leaders agree on peace push, Taliban don’t

By MAT PENNINGTON past week, includes incen-
Associated Press tives for insurgents that join
WASHINGTON (AP) — De- negotiations and enter the
spite U.S. support, the Af- political mainstream. The
ghan government’s surpris- government would pro-
ing new peace offer to the vide passports and visas
Taliban is immediately run- to Taliban members and
ning into a wall. The insur- their families, and work to
gents show no sign of shift- remove sanctions against
ing from their demand that Taliban leaders, he said.
talks for a conflict-ending The Islamist group could set
compromise take place up an office.
with Washington, not Ka- Alice Wells, America’s top
bul. diplomat for South Asia,
The impasse is blocking endorsed the overture and
a diplomatic path out of said the “onus” was on the
America’s longest-running Taliban to demonstrate
war and could prove as they’re ready to talk, “not
fateful as fortunes on the to me or the United States,
battlefield. but to the sovereign and
The Trump administration legitimate government
says it’s escalating pressure and people of Afghani-
on the Taliban to advance stan.”
a negotiated solution to With wounds and emotions
the fighting. But diplomacy still raw in Kabul after a
is a distant second to mili- Taliban fighters react to a speech by their senior leader in the Shindand district of Herat province, wave of brutal Taliban at-
tary efforts right now, and Afghanistan. With U.S. support, the Afghan government has made a surprising new peace offer to tacks in Kabul in late Janu-
the U.S. isn’t offering carrots the Taliban, only to immediately run into a wall. ary, Ghani’s offer was a sig-
of its own to persuade the (AP Photos/Allauddin Khan) nificant olive branch. Still,
insurgents to lay down their when it might start pulling emy when the U.S. might Obama administration’s it’s one unlikely to change
arms. forces from Afghanistan. leave. The U.S. involvement peace push, which relied the calculus of hard-line
Laurel Miller, who until last “That could set the stage in the Afghan conflict is now heavily on Afghanistan’s insurgents, said Michael
June was a senior Ameri- for talks,” she said. in its 17th year, and 10,000 neighbor Pakistan, floun- Kugelman, senior associ-
can diplomat for Afghani- Such a timetable seems a Afghan civilians were killed dered in 2015. ate for South Asia at the
stan and Pakistan, said remote prospect, and Pres- or wounded in 2017 alone. Afghan President Ashraf Wilson Center think tank.
the U.S. should be clearer ident Donald Trump has All sides are hung up on Ghani’s new effort, an- And Barnett Rubin, a New
about what it’s willing to consistently railed against even the format for po- nounced at an internation- York University expert on
negotiate on, including the idea of telling the en- tential negotiations. The al conference in Kabul this Afghanistan who advised
the Obama administra-
China looks to defuse trade tensions, asks US for talks tion, said: “The trouble is
that the major issue the Tal-

By GERRY SHIH for what China can do to Instead, his trip was over- But U.S. officials and com- iban is interested in talking
about is the one he has no
Associated Press ease tensions, according shadowed by President panies have been frustrat- control over — the pres-
BEIJING (AP) — President to the person, who request- Donald Trump’s announce- ed by a lack of implemen- ence of American troops
Xi Jinping’s top economic ed anonymity to discuss a ment Thursday of new tar- tation. They point to scarce in Afghanistan.”
adviser told U.S. business confidential meeting. iffs on steel and aluminum progress China has made Top Afghan security offi-
leaders in Washington that Liu was speaking at an imports. opening up sectors like fi- cials maintain back-chan-
China hopes the White event with executives in- In public pronouncements nancial services to foreign nel discussions with Taliban,
House will revive high-level cluding former Treasury and meetings with U.S. del- players, Chinese industrial The Associated Press has
dialogue on economic Secretary Hank Paulson egations since 2013, Chi- policies that favor domestic learned, but the officials’
disputes and name a new and the CEOs of JP Mor- na’s ruling Communist Par- firms and a yawning trade efforts are not coordinated
chief liaison to defuse gan Chase and chipmaker ty has repeatedly pledged deficit that amounted to and more formal talks are
mounting trade tensions, a Qualcomm. to allow free market com- $375 billion in 2017. impeded by the Taliban’s
person briefed on the mat- The requests were part of petition to play a “decisive The U.S.-China Compre- insistence that its “Islamic
ter said. the conciliatory message role” in China’s economy hensive Economic Dia- Emirate,” ousted in a U.S.-
The adviser, Liu He, said that Liu was tasked with as a guiding principle — logue mechanism that led invasion in 2001 for
he will take charge of re- bringing this past week to something Liu reiterated China is seeking to revive hosting al-Qaida, remains
form efforts this month and the United States, China’s this past week in Washing- has largely been dormant Afghanistan’s legitimate
wants a list of U.S. demands largest trading partner. ton. under Trump.q government. q