Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Tuesday the West was starting to realize the war in Afghanistan cannot be won militarily and that the peace process must involve reaching out to the Taliban. Karzai will host a grand assembly of Afghans later this month to present his draft for negotiations with the Taliban and to seek advice from delegates on peace moves. Karzai told a news conference in Kabul he had held “extensive discussions about the peace process” with US President Barack Obama during a three-day visit to Washington last week. “And they showed explicit support in this regard,” said Karzai, whose relations with the US government have been strained in recent years. Karzai, leader of Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban, said after years of debate the West had begun to realize the need to reach out to the Taliban. “When (in the past) we were speaking to them (West) about us talking to the Taliban, they would worry and said ‘What do you mean of this? And (talks) with who?',” he said. “And it took us a lot of time to make them understand our intention ... that our intention is to bring peace to Afghanistan and that militarily this war cannot succeed.” “For the past one month or so, we are beginning to see our points of views better understood by our allies,” Karzai said.
