Rigzone/Bloomberg: A $7.5 Billion Pipeline Has Surprise Patrons: Taliban Militants
After decades of talks, Afghanistan finally broke ground last month on a $7.5 billion gas pipeline that will run through areas controlled by the Taliban. Even more surprising: The militant group is backing the project.
The Taliban “deems it its responsibility to revive foundational economic and reconstruction work in the country and asks international construction companies to help the Afghans in this regard,” Zabihullah Mujahed, a spokesman, said in a statement last month, noting that talks on the pipeline dated back to when the Taliban governed the nation.
The endorsement from a group that has fought the U.S.-backed government in Kabul for the past 17 years raises a slight hope for a political settlement even as violence continues to rage. President Ashraf Ghani last week presented his most comprehensive peace offering yet to the Taliban, which controls or contests nearly half the country. He’s open to recognizing the group as a political movement and would help remove international sanctions.
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WNU Editor: It is stories like this one that gives me hope that Afghanistan may one day find its way. To start this pipeline all parties had to talk and come to an agreement .... and they are doing it based on the hope that one day the war will end. And while the Afghan war is still far from being resolved, this development is going in the right direction.
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