LONDON — Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said Friday that he is willing to consider reopening negotiations with the Taliban in his country — a statement that came amid a flurry of criticism that some elements within Pakistan remain sympathetic to the extremist movement.
“We never closed the dialogue,” said Zardari, skirting the question of when talks with the Taliban could actually resume. “We had an agreement, which they broke. (Talks will resume) whenever they feel we’re strong enough, and they realize they can’t win, because they won’t win. It will be a painful, difficult task, but defeat is not an option.”
Last year, the Pakistani government struck a deal with the Taliban in the Swat Valley that gave the group effective control over the region. The militants violated the agreement and moved into another region, prompting an all-out offensive by the Pakistani army.
Although some U.S. and British politicians have suggested talking to the “enemy” might be the only way to win the war, many in the U.S. administration and Pakistan’s other Western allies have publicly urged the country to continue fighting the Pakistani Taliban, not talk to its leaders.
Zardari, the widower of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, said accusations by British Prime Minister David Cameron and others that Pakistan was exporting terrorism were “exaggerated.”
He also said the military was doing more than it ever had, ridding the Swat Valley and South Waziristan of militants.
“We have more soldiers on the border now and have lost more soldiers in this war than anyone else,” Zardari said.
