Taliban Would Be Given Political Leadership in Provinces for End to Insurgency

Though the finishing touches are still being put on it, a new peace plan being pushed by the Karzai government aims to bring the Taliban into the political process by effectively ceding several provinces to them.

The plan envisions a ceasefire coming into place by 2015, and would grant the Taliban all top provincial government positions in several provinces, the ones that the Taliban already retains considerable de facto control over, in return for the ceasefire.

The hope is to limit US authority over the ongoing reconciliation process while trying to bring Pakistan onto the same side as the Karzai government in settling the ongoing war, something which would’ve been much easier had Karzai not continues to blame Pakistan for so many of his problems.

How stable this settlement would be is also a concern, as setting up a formal autonomous region for the Taliban would seemingly set the stage for the same sort of territorial conflicts Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan are constantly facing.