After last year's reported talks with the Taliban met a dead end and were mocked by Mullah Omar, more negotiations are underway. Al Jazeera reports "secret" talks between Hezb-i-Islami leader Gulbaldin Hekmatyar and the Western and Afghan officials are underway.
The talks, between Taliban-linked mediators, Western officials and the Afghan government, are believed to involve a proposal for the return to Afghanistan of Gulbaldin Hekmatyar, the country's former prime minister, who has been in hiding for seven years.
Hekmatyar, the leader of the Hezb-i-Islami forces fighting alongside the Taliban and labelled a "terrorist organisation" by the United States, would be allowed to return to Afghanistan with immunity from prosecution, according to information revealed to Al Jazeera.
Like past talks with supposed Taliban leaders who really are former Taliban leaders who have been expelled from the group, negotiations with Hekmatyar are very likely to go nowhere. Hekmatyar has been offered a way out several times before, only to reject the offers. He even rejected the offers in 2002 after the U.S. ejected the Taliban from control and the movement appeared to be defeated. His Hezb-i-Islami has become more radical and grown closer to al Qaeda and the Taliban.
Those looking to split the Taliban and allied groups would be better served by attempting to peel away the lower level leaders and followers as the upper echelon leaders have little interest in reconciliation. They have stated their demands time and time again: foreign forces must leave, the Afghan government must be dissolved, and the Taliban would regain control of Afghanistan.
