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Taliban peace talks with Hamid Karzai are 'mostly hype'
Recent widely-reported contacts between senior Taliban and the Kabul government have little to do with a peace settlement and involve scarcely more than exchanges of cash and prisoners, diplomats and observers have told the Guardian.
They say contacts with the Taliban have been under way for several years and reflect how war is waged in Afghanistan, where talking and fighting at the same time are common. But the encounters have been hyped as signs of a move towards peace as part of a misinformation campaign aimed at the Taliban leadership, or to reinforce the impression that NATO and Afghan forces are making strategic gains.
Anticipation of a breakthrough rose earlier this month after NATO officers and Afghan officials briefed journalists that there had been high-level contacts between President Hamid Karzai and senior Taliban members.
But according to officials briefed on the talks, there is, in the words of one source, "less than meets the eye".