Qaeda would face pressure from Afghan deal-making

London
(Reuters) - Bringing the Taliban into reconciliation talks with the U.S.
-backed Afghan government would strain the insurgents' ties to al Qaeda and lift Western hopes of denying Osama bin Laden the refuge his hosts provide.

Any pressure on al Qaeda's link to its Pashtun protectors could also spur bin Laden's group to expand ties to militants in other Muslim nations out of self-preservation as much as ideology.

The Afghan government on Thursday invited the Taliban
to a peace council, expected early this year, raising the prospect that attempts at political deal-making could eventually move to the forefront of efforts to end the war in Afghanistan.

Analysts said the Afghan Taliban headed by Mullah Omar did not have much incentive yet to join any talks following a year of territorial gains, and its link to al Qaeda remained intact.

But its more nationalist long-term goals differed from those of al Qaeda, whose militant ideology makes violent jihad an obligation for all Muslims, and an eventual rift was possible.

That reality, combined with regular missile attacks by U.S. drones on its hideouts in the mountainous Afghanistan-pakistan
border area, meant al Qaeda was facing multiple pressures.

"Al Qaeda faces a big threat," Edwin Bakker, a senior research fellow at the Clingendael Institute in The Hague: "The Taliban is a local group able to strike local deals and that's a worry for al Qaeda."

A Western intelligence source said the prospect of such talks would put "a great deal of pressure on al Qaeda

Source:/in.reuters.com/