Talking to the Afghan Taleban

US President Barack Obama has been devising a new strategy to tackle the Taleban threat in Afghanistan and has not ruled out some "tactical" negotiations to undermine the insurgency

Before the fall of the Taleban government in 2001, Mullah Zaeef was its ambassador to Pakistan.
After being picked up, he spent three years in US detention. He now lives on the outskirts of Kabul in a building with armed guards, no doubt partly to protect him and partly to keep an eye on him.

The mullah is an advocate of negotiations between the Taleban and the Afghan government and even with the US but only under the right conditions.

Taleban side that the purpose of talks is simply to weaken and divide the movement.
Among the conditions the Taleban want are the lifting of UN sanctions against Taleban leaders and a guarantee of their security.

Negotiations clearly require a partner and Mullah Zaeef, perhaps unsurprisingly, argues that the Taleban are a strong and coherent movement, one that has set up what he calls a "shadow government" providing justice in large parts of the country.

There have been internal reports over whether to negotiate and what position to take, particularly whether all foreign troops would have to leave before they stopped fighting, or whether some kind of commitment or timetable would be enough.

Some who fight are opportunistic, doing it for the money, others are more ideological.
In the south, the Quetta Shura and Mullah Omar predominate and they are said to be focused on the traditional aim of getting rid of foreign troops and imposing Islamic Sharia law.
But in the east, those fighting have closer links to Waziristan in Pakistan and also the foreign fighters linked to al-Qaeda.

There are other groups, like that of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who is currently fighting the US but who some believe might be amenable to a deal.

Afghanistan's neighbours as well as other countries have sought to pursue their own agendas by using different factions and groups within the country to dominate at the exclusion of others.
"Everyone is trying to make it their own. After 30 years none of them won Afghanistan. They destroyed Afghanistan

Western diplomats make clear that the single change that would put most pressure on the Taleban would be the denial of their sanctuaries and safe havens over the border in Pakistan.
A few voices in Washington even say the fight against the Taleban in Afghanistan is a case of "wrong enemy, wrong country".
In other words, the US should really be fighting al-Qaeda in Pakistan.
Cutting deals with the Taleban in Afghanistan may also look slightly awkward when the US has been critical of the deals that Pakistan has struck with the Taleban in its own territory.

So while there is much talk about negotiations, there is little sign they will make substantive progress for some time.