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UK to change tactics in Afghanistan

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-07-28 23:03

British senior ministers and commanders believed that they have created the right conditions to open up a dialogue with "second tier" local leaders.

The second tier of the insurgency are regarded as crucial because they control large numbers of Taliban fighters in the southern Afghanistan, analysts pointed out.

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However, observers said that it is a period of greater political uncertainty in Afghanistan than at any time.

The West don't know whether Afghan President Hamid Karzai is going to win the presidential elections next month and whether the situation in the country will be worse or not, analysts said.

Calls for engagement with conservative Pashtun leaders in the Taliban are essentially a side bet on Karzai losing, they said.

OBSTACLE TO RECONCILIATION

Some British ministers and military commanders compared the current campaign in southern Afghanistan to anti-terrorist operations in Northern Ireland.

Observers said one of the key concepts in the Irish peace process was an explicit offer that if the republicans agreed to abandon violence, they would be offered a place in new political structures.

However, analysts questioned Karzai's willingness to do that, saying he would probably demand former militants surrender unconditionally to be readmitted to "society" and bar them from his government.

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