Karzai launches Afghan peace bid

AFGHANISTAN: Afghan President Hamid Karzai launches an ambitious peace plan on Wednesday that he hopes will persuade Taliban fighters to put down their weapons at a time foreign forces are flooding in for an offensive.

Unpopular at home despite an election victory last year that was mired in controversy, Karzai has called a traditional gathering of tribal leaders, elders and other notables to forge national consensus for overtures to the Taliban.

The peace jirga, as the centuries-old gathering is known in Pashto, draws 1,300 delegates under a vast marquee in the west of the capital, but noticeably absent will be representatives of the insurgents — although there will certainly be sympathisers.

With the insurgency at its most intense since their U.S.-led overthrow in 2001, the Taliban remain confident they can outlast the latest foreign invasion in the long history of Afghanistan’s conflicted past. “Obviously, the jirga will provide yet another pretext for America to continue the war in Afghanistan, rather than bringing about peace in the country,” the Taliban said in a statement on the eve of a gathering to which they hadn’t been invited, but wouldn’t attend if asked.

Their confidence comes despite a surge in U.S. forces that will push the size of the foreign military to around 150,000, with an offensive planned in coming weeks to tackle the Taliban in their Kandahar heartland.

But following its rapid disengagement from Iraq, the U.S. is keen, too, to get out of Afghanistan, and President Barack Obama has said he wants to start withdrawing troops from July 2011. KABUL, Wednesday, Reuters