Striking deal with Omar could save US: Col Imam

Brigadier Sultan Amir Tarar, a former operative of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, has resurfaced and said that the US must directly talk to Afghan Taliban chief and his protégé Mullah Omar to resolve the political situation in Afghanistan.

Tarar, who is popularly known Colonel Imam, suggested this in an interview to US publishing agency McClatchy.

"Mullah Omar is highly respected, very faithful to his country. He's the only answer. He's a very reasonable man," said Tarar to Saeed Shah and Jonathan S. Landay of the McClatchy Newspapers.

"He's a very effective man, no other man is effective. He's for peace, not war. The Americans don't realise this. He wants his country to be peaceful. He doesn't want to destroy his country."

Tarar said the US' strategy to break the Taliban by buying operatives would not work.

"If a sincere message comes from the Americans, these people (the Taliban) are very big-hearted. They will listen. But if you try to divide the Taliban, you'll fail. Anyone who leaves Mullah Omar is no more Taliban. Such people are just trying to deceive," he said.

Tarar has said that he had trained Omar at the secret ISI camps that were funded by the US to fight Soviet forces way back in 1985.

The eight-year war in Afghanistan has cost the US and other NATO forces heavily in terms of money and lives. With no end in sight for the war, the US and other forces are keen on looking for other ways to resolve the Afghanistan crisis.

US has been non-committal about talks with the Taliban, but US National Security Adviser James Jones did tell McClatchy that the Obama administration would not include ISI as part of the talks with Afghanistan.

"We are pursuing a general strategy of engagement," he said. "We'll see where this takes us."

Pakistan has also said that it was holding talks at "all levels" of the Taliban. However, US diplomats fear, that the ISI, if not included in the talks, might fund the Taliban and other insurgent forces to set up a Pro-Pakistani power in Afghanistan.

Tarar, a former Pakistani Consul General at Heart in Afghanistan, said Omar would surely agree for a political deal, if the US and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation agreed to withdraw troops from Afghanistan and help in rebuilding the country by providing funds.