Afghan Official Confirms Moves Toward Taliban Talks

[Bragi]

Source: New York Times

KABUL, Afghanistan — The head of Afghanistan’s new peace council confirmed Thursday that contacts with members of the Taliban through mediators had been made and said that the international support for direct talks added new momentum to the effort...

Mr. Obama signed off on a policy early this year that talks were possible as long as Taliban leaders, at the end of the process, agreed to renounce violence, lay down their arms, and pledge fidelity to the Afghan Constitution.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/15/world/asia/15nato.html?_r=1&hp

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Two comments:

1. This looks promising, but I am disturbed that none of these articles confirming talks with the Taliban include quotes from the Taliban. It isn't as though Taliban spokespeople don't exist. What's the journalistic problem here?

2. The bolded phrase above jumped out at me. As I recall, the Bushites demanded that the Taliban basically surrender prior to the opening of any talks. According to above article, however, Obama is prepared to talk without prior surrender. That makes a lot of sense to me, so good on him if that is indeed the case.