Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Month: June 2013

Taliban steals the show in Afghanistan peace talks, again

AAN Team •

The Australian, 22 June 2013 In a report about ‘the debacle of this week’s still-born Afghan Taliban peace talks’, the Australian daily quotes from Kate Clark’s analysis published on AAN: “We have all come to be wary of the term, ‘Afghan-led’ as on the battlefield it has often been used to describe operations which are […]

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Norges nye kriger

AAN Team •

Bergens Tidende, 22 June 2013 The Norwegian daily points to Obaid Ali’s AAB dispatch from the northern Afghan province of Faryab, ‘publiserte den avhengige og respekterte organisasjonen AAN (The Afghanistan Analysts Network) en rapport om sikkerhetssituasjonen. De benytter alle de best tilgjengelige kildene, og slår fast at voldsnivået i vår har vært det høyeste siden […]

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Taliban offer to trade U.S. soldier captured in Afghanistan

admin •

The Star, 21 June 2013 New hints at the possibility of a deal for exchanging prisoners made by the Taleban representatives in Qatar have rekindled hopes in the US of bringing home Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, prisoner since 2009. The Taleban, on the other hand, ask for the release of some of their senior officials long […]

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Freeing the ‘Guantanamo Five’ 2: Kafka in Cuba (first posted: 11-03-2012)

Kate Clark •

A possible prisoner exchange – captured US soldier, Bowe Bergdahl, for five key members of the Taleban who are held in Guantanamo Bay – is top of the Taleban’s agenda for negotiations, according to their spokesman, Sohail Shaheen, speaking to AP. When this exchange was first mooted in early 2012, it caused outrage among some […]

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Releasing the Guantanamo Five? 1: Biographies of the prisoners (first posted: 09-03-2012)

Kate Clark •

Now that the Taleban office in Qatar has been opened, a US-Taleban prisoner exchange is again on the table. It would mean the American soldier, Bowe Bergdahl, who was captured by the Haqqani-linked, Taleban commander, Mullah Sangin in 2009, being exchanged for four senior and one junior Taleban prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay; they include […]

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Afghan revelations: Pakistan-US secret diplomacy created Doha roadmap

admin •

The Express Tribune, 20 June 2013 This long article by the Pakistani newspaper offers Islamabad’s take of the opening of the Taleban office in Qatar. According to its many (unnamed) diplomatic sources “the real breakthrough in these negotiations came through personal diplomacy between John Kerry and Pakistan’s Army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.” It thus […]

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U.S. moves to mollify Karzai ahead of Taliban talks

AAN Team •

Washington Post, 20 June 2013 The Obama administration expects to move ahead with plans to meet with Taliban representatives within the next few days, despite a still-simmering dispute with Afghan President Hamid Karzai over the negotiations that led him Wednesday to suspend separate talks over a key U.S.-Afghan security pact.

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Afghan President Karzai now willing to join Taliban peace talks

AAN Team •

Fox News, 20 June 2013 Karzai says he will join talks with the Taliban — provided that the Taliban flag and nameplate with their former regime’s name — the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan” — are removed from the office. Karzai also wants a formal letter from the United States supporting the Afghan government.

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Taliban provozieren mit Ja zu Friedensgesprächen

AAN Team •

Bonner Generalanzeiger, 20 June 2013 In the context of the botched opening of the Taleban office in Qatar, AAN’s Martine van Bijlert explains that ‘both sides agree that there will be talking and fighting at the same time’.

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28 June 2013, Brussels: Round-table discussion with Sari Kouvo

Sudhansu Verma •

Dr Sari Kouvo of the Afghanistan Analyst Network (AAN) will present AAN’s upcoming report ‘Tell Us How This Ends – Transitional Justice and Prospects for Peace in Afghanistan’ at a European Peacebuilding Liaison Office (EPLO) Brown Bag Lunch. The EPLO lunch events are 1-1.5 hour-long, informal round-table discussions on a wide range of geographic and […]

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The World According to Warlick

admin •

El Snarkistani Storify feed, 19 June 2013 AAN guest blogger Gary Owens gathered examples of the apt and insightful social media presence of US Ambassador James Warlick.

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The Opening of the Taleban Office in Qatar: A propaganda coup and an angry government

Kate Clark •

The long awaited Taleban office in Qatar has opened on 18 June 2013 with a press conference in which two spokesmen presented their movement as a government in waiting. With the old Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan flag behind them, Sohail Shaheen, in English and Mullah Naeem, in Pashto managed to portray an insurgency, whose main […]

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