Free Preview of Members-Only Content
To view the requested intelligence, you must be a Stratfor.com member.
More details emerged Oct. 6 about British-backed talks that Afghanistan and its Western allies held recently with representatives of the Taliban in Saudi Arabia. The talks, hosted by Saudi King Abdullah himself, were held Sept. 24-27 in Mecca and involved 11 Taliban delegates, two Afghan government officials, a representative of Islamist rebel leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and three others. The report also quoted an unnamed source as saying that Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar has made it clear he is no longer allied with al Qaeda.
The recent surge in backchannel activity as well as increasing international interest in talks with the Taliban would not have been possible unless Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s government — and, more importantly, its Western backers — had some degree of confidence that Omar and his associates in the Taliban hierarchy were prepared to part ways with al Qaeda. In fact, many factors — including geography and diverging interests — might have already put significant distance between the leaderships of the Taliban and al Qaeda prime.
| Stratfor Members, please log in at the top left hand corner |
