Ainsworth: forces are talking to Taliban
Updated on 07 February 2010
British forces in Afghanistan are engaged in direct talks with Taliban representatives, the Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth has told Channel 4 News.
Speaking at RAF Northolt on his return from a security conference in Munich, Mr Ainsworth said: "There's no need for us to wait until some end point before we start talking to those elements of the Taliban who don't share all of the ideological aims of some of their leaders.
"Those talks have already been going on, and have been going on for some time.
"They're led by the Afghan government, and we would encourage them to do so", he said, adding that British forces were helping reconciliation and reintegration efforts in various ways.
British troops are currently preparing for the biggest military offensive in Afghanistan since 2001.
"Is it the case that British personnel have been meeting some elements of the Taliban, at the same time as other British personnel have been fighting them?" Ainsworth was asked by Channel 4 News's Krishnan Guru-Murthy.
He replied: "British commanders have talked to local people over the years. There's nothing new in that."
"Local Taliban?" asks Guru-Murthy.
"British commanders have talked to disaffected Afghans in an attempt to draw them away from the insurgency," said Ainsworth.
"They've done that in Sangin over the years, they've done it in Musa Kala, they did it before Panther Claw last summer."
For several months now, the political strategy in Afghanistan has been evolving to the point where Britain has strongly supported what it has described as an Afghan-led initiative to try to bring Taliban into the political process if they are prepared to live with in the Afghan constitution and renounce al-Qaida.
It has been very unclear how in practice this is being done and the British government has been stressing that this is an Afghan process.
What the defence secretary has confirmed today is that as British forces prepare for one of the biggest offensives against Taliban since 2001 British personnel are also involved in meeting individual Taliban commanders.