Main content

Afghanistan: Time to Talk to the Taliban?

After 16 years of war, is a military solution credible?

January has been bloody in the Afghan capital Kabul, where more than 130 civilians have been killed and many more wounded in a series of attacks by the Taliban and the Islamic State group. Suicide bombers have targeted not only security forces but also a hotel, and a crowded shopping street. Does this latest spike in violence mean their tactics have changed, and if so why? The US has recently committed a few more troops to Afghanistan, but after 16 years of fighting, is a military solution credible? Is it time, once and for all, to make peace with the Taliban? At what price, to whom? Does any answer inevitably depend on Pakistan? On Newshour Extra this week Razia Iqbal and a panel of experts discuss the war in Afghanistan and the prospects for peace.

(Photo: an Afghan man holds a wounded child, after a car bomb exploded near the old Interior Ministry building in Kabul on January 27, 2018. Credit: Getty Images)

Available now

50 minutes

Last on

Sat 3 Feb 2018 12:06GMT

Contributors

Michael Semple - Professor at Queen's University Belfast and former deputy head of the EU mission in Kabul

Kate Clark - Co-director of the Afghanistan Analysts Network and former Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Kabul correspondent

Shukria Barakzai - Afghan MP and Afghanistan's Ambassador to Norway

Brigadier Muhammad Saad Khan - Former Pakistani defence attachΓ© in Kabul

Rahimullah Yusufzai - Editor of The News International newspaper in Peshawar

Broadcasts

  • Fri 2 Feb 2018 00:06GMT
  • Fri 2 Feb 2018 09:06GMT
  • Fri 2 Feb 2018 18:06GMT
  • Fri 2 Feb 2018 23:06GMT
  • Sat 3 Feb 2018 04:06GMT
  • Sat 3 Feb 2018 12:06GMT

The Real Story Podcast

Subscribe via your favourite podcast app...

Podcast