Talking with the Taliban

Mullah Omar, the leader of the Afghan Taliban, released a long statement Monday in which he praised Taliban military success and then confirmed that Taliban representatives have negotiated with the US:

Most significantly, Omar confirms that his lieutenants have already started negotiating with the United States. He refers to “contacts which have been made with some parties for the release of prisoners,” a stark contrast with the Taliban’s consistent and frequent denials that secretive talks with their adversaries are under way. Omar downplays the prisoner discussions as short of a “comprehensive negotiation,” but also signals that the Taliban of 2011, if returned to power, won’t be the old Taliban of the 1990s that “monopolize[d]” political power. Conspicuously, Omar doesn’t claim that the U.S. has to stop fighting before additional negotiations can proceed.

Ahmed Rashid, a Pakistani journalist who’s covered the Taliban since its inception, considers the statement something of a watershed. “By acknowledging that there have been contacts with the Americans, Mullah Omar is sending a clear message to his fighters that future political talks are a possibility,” Rashid writes,”while signaling to the Americans that he may eventually be prepared to broaden the scope of the dialogue and those already participating in it.”

Seen in that light, Omar’s boasts of Taliban military success could be a rhetorical gambit allowing him a face-saving way to negotiate: having fought to an advantageous position — after all, the Taliban were routed between 2001 and 2005 — the Taliban now seek to consolidate their gains through diplomacy, ending a long, bloody war on favorable terms.