TALIBAN SIGNALS THEY ARE NOT READY FOR ANY KIND OF PEACE NEGOTIATIONS

Afghanistan: The government's High Peace Council chairman, former president Burhanuddin Rabbani, was assassinated by a suicide bomber on 20 September in front of his Kabul residence — another council member also was wounded in the blast, which occurred in the high-security neighborhood of Wazir Akbar Khan. Rabbani was responsible for leading negotiations with the Taliban on behalf of the Afghan government. Rabbani, a Tajik affiliated with the Northern Alliance, headed peace talks with the Pashtuns and was president in 1996 when the Taliban forced him to flee from Kabul. Thus, Rabbani's appointment conveyed a lack of sincerity to the Taliban and there was never any meetings on peace talks — which is precisely what Mullah Omar said in his greeting for Eid ul Fitr on 30 August.



Nevertheless, the Taliban also have never been seriously interested in peace talks. Talks are not part of their strategy — waiting out the enemy is. The significance of this assassination is that it is the fourth attack this summer that demonstrates the government cannot protect the capital: when the government coalition is under attack in the capital, it is losing. Not even the Syrian government faces that condition.