The AP Interview: Don’t isolate the Taliban, Pakistan urges

By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Pakistan’s top diplomat has some ideas from his country on how to engage the new Taliban government in Afghanistan. Be realistic. Show patience. Engage. And above all, don’t isolate. Those are the pillars of an approach emerging in Pakistan to deal with the fledgling government that is suddenly running the country next door once again — Afghanistan’s resurgent, often-volatile Taliban. Pakistan’s government is proposing that the international community develop a road map that leads to diplomatic recognition of the Taliban — with incentives if they fulfill its requirements — and then sit down face to face and talk it out with the militia’s leaders.