Top U.S. officials are nervous about talks between the Afghan government and a man designated a terrorist by the State Department whose group has been responsible for deadly attacks against American and NATO troops.
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, leader of the Hezb-i-Islami, has been meeting with the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai and United Nations officials this week, pushing an agenda that includes the exit of NATO troops from Afghanistan as soon as the end of this year.
In an exclusive interview with the Washington Examiner on Thursday, Dr. Ghairt Baheer, son-in-law of Hekmatyar, said talks with the Karzai government are “moving in a positive direction.” “We are here in Kabul and we had useful discussions with President Karzai, the chairman of the Afghan senate, representatives from the European Union, United Nations, as well as the ex-Taliban minister,” Baheer said, in a telephone interview. “So far we are getting a positive response and we are happy with that.”
Asked if Hekmatyar is still insisting on the withdrawal of all NATO and U.S. troops by the end of the year, Baheer said, “It is still on the table and that is why we feel progress is being made.” The Hekmatyar negotiations with Karzai’s government has exposed a rift between U.S. officials who think any dealing with his group is a military and political mistake, and others who feel it is a necessary evil on the road to reconciliation of anti-government Afghans. Karzai’s meetings with Hekmatyar’s group is bringing to a head the debate inside U.S. policy circles about which former terrorists and Taliban leaders can be embraced.
A U.S. defense official who spoke with the Washington Examiner, said giving a “terrorist like Hekmatyar a prominent place at the table is the wrong thing to do.” He added, “This man has killed many people, troops and civilians. He is a designated terrorist. He can never be trusted, history has taught us that.”
U.S. diplomats have so far refused to meet with representatives of Hekmatyar and he remains on the State Department’s “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” list. However, a U.S. Official, who spoke to on condition of anonymity, because of the sensitive nature of the subject, said “that a door remains open for Hekmatyar if he renounces al Qaeda.”
The official said “if the U.S. is to sanction any of the ongoing talks and remove him from the list of designated terrorists” he must also stop fighting NATO forces and accept the “Afghan government’s constitution.”
Bruce Riedel, a former CIA analyst who was an early adviser to President Obama on Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy, said that Karzai “knows Americans are very skeptical about these talks but he is determined to be his own independent man and not a tool of the U.S.” Karzai-Hekmatyar talks “before making any commitments either way.”
Hekmatyar’s group has been responsible for attacking U.S. and NATO troops and civilians throughout Afghanistan’s eastern provinces. He is believed to be hiding in the border region of North Waziristan, Pakistan. In October 2009, Hematyar’s insurgent group sent 150 insurgents to attack a remote U.S. military outpost in Nuristan province, killing eight American soldiers and wounding 24 others. In July 2008, his group attacked a military parade, killing 41 people and nearly assassinating Karzai.
