With the war in Afghanistan dragging into its tenth year, Pakistan is increasingly talking up the need for a political settlement which would force al Qaeda to leave the region. And while there is little sign yet Washington is ready to hold serious negotiations with Afghan insurgents, analysts detect a new tone in Pakistani comments about driving Osama bin Laden's organisation out of its haven on the 'Pakistan border'.
A senior security official said the Afghan stalemate could be lifted by setting a minimum agenda in which insurgents broke with al Qaeda. There were indications, he said, they could renounce the organisation and ask it to leave the region. Senior politician Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman, a pro-Taliban member of the ruling coalition, also said a settlement "would squeeze the room for al Qaeda".. "Al Qaeda will have to fall in line or leave the region," he told Reuters in an interview in London late last month.
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