Miliband urges Kabul to pursue peaceful settlement
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband urged the Afghan government to aggressively pursue a political settlement with insurgents to help end the war in Afghanistan and do it now while the military and civilian surges are putting pressure on the Taliban.
Mr Miliband said in a speech delivered at Massachusetts Institute of Technology that conditions made it possible for sides to come together since the current military surge has been seen as a success.
“But my argument today is that now is the time for the Afghans to pursue a political settlement with as much vigour and energy as we are pursuing the military and civilian effort,” said Mr Miliband, a 1990 MIT graduate.
“The political settlement needs to be external as well as internal, involving all of Afghanistan’s neighbours, as well as those parts of the insurgency willing permanently to sever ties with al Qaida, to give up their armed struggle, and live within the Afghan constitutional framework.”
Mr Miliband acknowledged that “violence of the most murderous ... kind started this war”, but he said politics could bring an end to it.
Mr Miliband also said that the majority of insurgents aren’t committed to al Qaida’s extremist views and are motivated by their dissatisfaction with expanded international forces and corruption within the Afghan government.
He said they could be reintegrated into Afghan society, a key element to ending the war.
“Some insurgents are committed to al Qaida’s extremist agenda,” Mr Miliband said. “There will never be reconciliation with them – they must be beaten back.”
Mr Miliband’s speech comes as the Afghan government is putting finishing touches on a reintegration plan to woo low- and midlevel Taliban fighters with economic incentives.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said this week an action plan for reintegrating Taliban fighters into society and talking with the insurgency’s top leaders will be crafted at a spring peace meeting, known as a jirga, in Kabul.
Afghan Education Minister Farooq Wardak, who is working to set up the meeting, told members of the parliament that 1,400 people will attend the three-day jirga, which will start April 29.
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