Karzai's Peace Plan: Exile Taliban Leaders

Taliban leaders would be allowed to go peacefully into exile, while their warriors would be given jobs and “deradicalization” classes under a new peace plan that will be proposed later this month by Hamid Karzai's government in Afghanistan. The write-up seen by the Guardian refers to Taliban fighters as “angry brothers,” to drive home the idea that they are not ideologically motivated.

The international community is eager to see such a reintegration plan, and has chipped in $160 million to pay for it. But Karzai has been frustrated by US opposition to high-level talks with Taliban leaders, some of whom seem willing to talk. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, for example, sent a peace delegation to Kabul in March, and some speculate he'd be among the first to accept exile. (More Afghanistan stories.)