EU Foreign Policy Chief in Favor of Talks with the Taliban

Javier Solana, the EU’s High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, said according to AFP that he backed the new Pakistani government’s moves to hold talks with Taliban militants, but ruled out any negotiations with Al-Qaeda.

This puts Europe at odds with the United States! Not just with the Bush administration, but also with all remaining presidential candidates. Even Barack Obama, who is willing to meet with Iran’s President Ahmadinejad, seems to be against negotiations with Taliban. He wrote in Foreign Affairs last summer:

Our strategy must also include sustained diplomacy to isolate the Taliban and more effective development programs that target aid to areas where the Taliban are making inroads.

I agree with Niklas Keller, who argued in the Atlantic Community that “negotiations with the Taliban may be the West’s most effective tool to successfully ‘divide and conquer’ the Afghani insurgency.”

Cross-posted from Atlantic Review