By KUNA
London : Western governments must talk to terror groups including al-Qaeda and the Taliban if they hope to secure a long-term halt to their campaigns of violence, former British Premier Tony Blair’s aide Jonathan Powell said on Saturday.
It was essential to keep a line of communication open even with one’s most bitter enemies, Powell, who served as Blair’s chief of staff from 1995 to 2007 was quoted by British Daily the Guardian as saying.
The former advisor was widely regarded as having been instrumental in negotiating a settlement in Northern Ireland during Blair’s administration.
He told the Daily “There’s nothing to say to al-Qaeda and they’ve got nothing to say to us at the moment, but at some stage you’re going to have to come to a political solution as well as a security solution. And that means you need the ability to talk.” Powell said that he had realized, after reviewing government papers, that a secret back channel between the British government and the Irish Republican Army (IRA), was first opened in the 1970s, and was one of the key factors that contributed to a peace deal three decades later.
“It’s very difficult for democratic governments to talk to a terrorist movement that’s killing your people,” he said. “But, if I was in government now I would want to have been talking to Hamas, I would be wanting to communicate with the Taliban; and I would want to find a channel to al-Qaeda.” A spokesperson of the British Foreign Ministry refuted Powell’s statements, saying that it was “unconvincing” for the British government to reach a settlement with a terrorist group such al-Qaeda.