US Had Secret Talks With Haqqani Network

The US held at least one secret peace negotiation this summer with the Haqqani Network, the militant group at the center of its current public spat with Pakistan, senior officials tell the Wall Street Journal. The meeting was set up by Pakistani intelligence, which the US says confirms its suspicions of the cozy relationship between the two.

The US has long said that any reconciliation with the Haqqani network is impossible. “We've got no illusions about what the Haqqanis ultimately are,” one senior official says, but the “war is going to end with a deal. That's what we're trying to make inevitable." The talks appear to have yielded little progress—an official described them as “early and not very well defined”—and came before their alleged attack on the US embassy in Kabul.