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Canadian commander backs Karzai-Taliban talks

23 October 2010 00:12 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. The top Canadian commander in Afghanistan says he supports talks between President Hamid Karzai and the Taliban, adding that the Canadian Forces would be willing to help, APA reports quoting CBC.
"From a perspective here on the ground, we definitely think that that is a positive way ahead," Brigadier-General Dean Milner, commander of Canada’s Task Force Kandahar, said at a news conference on Friday.
"We believe itâ€™s an excellent initiative. [Afghan National Army commander Ahmed] Habibi and I talk about it all the time as well. So this is something weâ€™re waiting to see how it evolves."
Milner was asked if his forces would provide safe transportation and passage for members of the Taliban to get to talks with Karzai government officials.
â€œIf we were tasked with something like this from our chain of command, absolutely. It has not come that far yet. We think this is an excellent initiative and weâ€™re prepared to support President Karzai in anything that he would like us to do, but it has not come that far yet."
Earlier this month, Karzai confirmed his government has been in informal talks with the Taliban on securing peace in "for quite some time."
"We have been talking to the Taliban as countryman to countryman," Karzai said. "Not as a regular official contact with the Taliban with a fixed address, but rather unofficial personal contacts have been going on for quite some time."