Word: brokering
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...battle at Kunduz may be a critical moment shaping the post-Taliban order. The various factions of the Northern Alliance are due to meet Monday in Germany with the Pashtun mujahedeen commanders and others who have taken over much of the south, as part of a U.N. effort to broker agreement on a new government. A bloodbath at Kunduz, where some 30,000 mostly Pashtun civilians are reportedly trapped, may sour the atmosphere for Monday's talks. But if large numbers of Afghan Taliban surrender and ultimately find themselves joining with Alliance fighters in facing down the recalcitrant foreigners, they...
...facto Saudi leader Crown Prince Abdullah sent a blunt message to Bush: "You've left us no choice but to take steps irrespective of what effects they have on U.S. interests." Last week Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal was similarly scathing: "He cannot be an honest broker and only meet with one side." Even the closest U.S. ally is growing tense. Britain's Tony Blair has jetted in and out of the region for weeks, acting as shadow Secretary of State for Colin Powell, who went to the region three times this year and won't go back...
...capture Kandahar, too. Washington had feared that if Kabul fell to the Northern Alliance before a viable anti-Taliban coalition had support in the south, the retreating Taliban might find considerable support for fighting on. Much now depends on efforts by the U.S. and other international powers to broker an agreement on a post-Taliban regime - efforts that have so far produced little consensus among either the Afghan combatants or their regional sponsors. The military campaign to replace the Taliban has suddenly raced ahead of its political dimension. And that means the most important battles of the coming weeks...
...hearts and minds of the Arab world. The U.S. might have been helped in this respect by bin Laden's bizarre rant against the United Nations. The terrorist leader may have been trying to discredit the international body in anticipation of any progress in international efforts to broker a new Israeli-Palestinian peace breakthrough (which would undermine one of his key propaganda devices). But two days later, his Taliban hosts were on TV demanding urgent humanitarian assistance - from the United Nations...
They are about to find out. At the beginning of the air campaign, the Administration carefully calibrated the war to mesh with diplomatic efforts aimed at cobbling together a successor government to the Taliban. But that political alchemy can't be ordered off the shelf. The West must first broker a consensus among Afghanistan's multitude of opposition groups. In Pakistan last week, Colin Powell seemed to get behind Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's proposal that a governing coalition would include Taliban "moderates"--members of the majority Pashtun tribe in the south who could be convinced, or bribed, to peel...