US sets out red lines for Taliban talks

LONDON (Reuters) - US Special Envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke welcomed a UN Security Council Sanctions Committees removal of five former senior Taliban officials from a sanctions list on Wednesday and called for the list to be overhauled.
The international community had red lines on reconciliation, including the Talibans treatment of women, he said.
Holbrooke called the UN committees decision a long overdue step.
That list ... should be re-examined and scrubbed down. There are people on it who are dead, there are people on it who shouldnt be on it, US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Holbrooke told a news briefing.
He said people often confused reintegration - attempts to persuade low-ranking fighters with the Taliban to lay down their arms - and reconciliation - whether the Kabul government can find common ground with the Taliban.
On reconciliation, he said, There is a lot less going on than is being implied by articles.
He said the international community had red lines on reconciliation, including the Talibans treatment of women.
Any discussions involving what we call reconciliation must involve a repudiation of any ties to Al-Qaeda as well as a willingness to lay down their arms and participate in a peaceful political approach to the future of Afghanistan, he said.
Asked about speculation that Karzai may announce on Thursday a Loya Jirga, an assembly of elders that may discuss talking to the Taliban, Holbrooke said the US would welcome such an announcement.