Army 'in contact' with Mullah Omar

PAKISTAN’S military has declared that not only is it in contact with Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Omar but that it can bring him and other commanders to the negotiating table with the United States.
Mullah Omar, the Afghan Taliban leader, has been a fugitive from US-led forces since 2001.
The acknowledgment of on-going communication with Taliban forces using sanctuary in Pakistan to launch military strikes against US troops in neighboring Afghanistan is part of a new diplomatic overture to help the Obama administration find an end to the long-running conflict.
In an exclusive interview with CNN on FRiday, Pakistan military spokesman Maj-Gen Athar Abbas said in return for any role as a broker between the United States and the Taliban, Pakistan wants concessions from Washington over Islamabad’s concerns with long-time rival India. And senior US officials have told CNN the Obama Administration is willing both to talk to top Taliban leaders and to raise some of Pakistan’s concerns with India.
With NATO’s Afghan force commanders conceding the military fight against the Taliban in key areas of Afghanistan is at a ‘stalemate’ and that a recent influx of American combat troops is hoped to break the deadlock, the consensus among military and diplomatic figures in the region is that the United States cannot win the war in Afghanistan militarily.
Most believe a resolution to the conflict will ultimately be a political, and economic, one rather than a military victory that will necessitate negotiations with the Taliban. Such a resolution will have to be struck with the involvement of Pakistan, India, Iran and possibly Saudi Arabia, as well as NATO and the United States.
And with the Pakistan military, with its intelligence service, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), now going public with its offer to act as broker to help initiate talks, this could be the first opportunity for a breakthrough in ending the Afghan war that began with the US invasion in 2001.
Abbas told CNN after its ‘very intense relationship’ with militants during the fighters’ alliance with the United States during the Soviet war in Afghanistan, the military is now still in contact with Taliban commanders such as Mullah Omar, Jalaluddin Haqqani and Mullah Nazir and Gulbadin Hekmatyar, leader of the Hizb-e-Islami group.
“That’s right, the ISI was in the forefront of the whole struggle against the Soviets. Now, by maintaining the contacts with the organisations like (Mullah Omar’s Taliban and Gulbadin Hekmatyar) doesn’t mean that that state policy is (to be) providing them physical support or the funding or training,” Abbas said.