From The Telegraph:
On the eve of today’s summit in London on the future of Afghanistan, sources told The Daily Telegraph that they hoped to be able to “reintegrate” half the estimated 25,000 Taliban fighters with promises of new jobs. The aim is to “divide the insurgency” with the military continuing to pursue the “hard-core Taliban”, but sources say eventually they hope that even Mullah Mohammad Omar, the movement’s leader, will be part of the peace process…
In a further attempt to pave the way for an eventual political settlement, five former senior Taliban regime figures and associates of Mullah Omar were removed from a United Nations’ sanctions list yesterday. Most jobs for former Taliban fighters are expected to be in the security services as part of local militias rather than alternative employment in agriculture, sources disclosed. But diplomats will today also float the idea of employing them in the Afghan army and the police forces that they have been attacking. The conference is not expected to lay out a detailed plan for reintegration but will unveil a fund of hundreds of millions of pounds to pay for it.
As it started, this will end in tears and gnashing of teeth.
