ISLAMABAD, 28 February 2007 — Britain does not foresee any chance of dialogue with Taleban leaders running an insurgency in Afghanistan, UK Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said here yesterday.
Speaking at a reception hosted in her honor by the Foreign Service Academy at Islamabad Club, Beckett said she had no inclination to talk to Taleban commanders whose expressed goals were to kill British troops stationed in Afghanistan.
But, she added that talks with former Taleban or sympathizers who were no longer active might be a possibility in the future. “That could be a different matter, but I certainly don’t envisage some form or process of dialogue at present,” Beckett said.
She said the regrouping of Taleban and Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and in Pakistan’s border region was a cause of concern. Beckett said: “We are deeply concerned over latest developments in Afghanistan and we wish to share our concern with Pakistan which remains our ally in the war against terror. We anticipate intensified terrorist activities by Al-Qaeda and Taleban during spring.”
She said the United Kingdom, like other NATO members, has great stakes in Afghanistan. Beckett said she understood that halting cross-border infiltration by militants along the rugged, 2,400 km frontier posed immense difficulties, and it was up to allies to cooperate with Pakistan to meet the challenge.
Referring to the Iranian nuclear standoff, Beckett said, “We are not making preparations for any strike on Iran but Tehran itself is treading a dangerous path by refusing to suspend uranium enrichment.” She said several proposals had been made to Iran that would allow the country everything it needed to develop a modern civil nuclear power industry and provide a basis for wider cooperation. Iran, she said, failed to comply with UN Security Council Resolution and “we will therefore work to adopt stringent measures to further isolate Iran internationally.” She said if Iran’s claims of pursuing a nuclear program for peaceful purposes were correct why was it not suspending uranium enrichment. She said, “We are determined to prevent Iran from acquiring the means to develop nuclear weapons.”
Beckett said a failed Iraq would pose as great a risk to international security as Afghanistan when it was controlled by the Taleban and provided a secure base for Al-Qaeda. “The consequences of a failure in Iraq now are every bit as stark as the failure in Afghanistan in the last decade,” she said.
Beckett later met with NWFP Governor Lt. Gen. Ali Jan Aurakzai in Peshawar and discussed Pakistan’s deal with tribal leaders in Waziristan.
