[1]New Delhi: Details coming out regarding the US appeasement of Pakistan by according treatment to the Taliban — which the Americans have been fighting for years — on par with the elected government of Afghanistan, leave little doubt that an elaborate deception was at work in Washington.
It is learnt that a letter to Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, with the signature of US President Barack Obama, sought to assure the Afghan leader that the Taliban will be given no special status through the opening of an office in Qatar capital Doha for the extremist outfit to engage in talks with various parties, aimed at bringing about peace in Afghanistan in the wake of the end of the US combat mission in that country in 2014.
It was on the basis of this letter that President Karzai initially accorded conditional acceptance to the opening of the Taliban office in Doha, which was the result of some two years of persevering work by the Americans.
But hardly had the letter been delivered that it became clear that the game was to take the Afghans for a ride, and in the process the Indians as well. This aspect is likely to become a matter of discussion with secretary of state John Kerry over his three-day stay in the Indian capital commencing Sunday.
From the time of the London Conference in January 2010, India had been emphasising that any peace process to stabilise Afghanistan after the departure of international troops had to be Afghan-led, and not chaperoned by Washington or Islamabad.
New Delhi’s position was the result of the understanding that it remains Pakistan’s strategic objective to install the Taliban in power in Kabul once again.
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