WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday signaled the United States remains
open to exploring a peace deal including the Haqqani network, the
militant group that U.S. officials blame for a campaign of high-profile
violence that could jeopardize Washington's plans for withdrawing
smoothly from Afghanistan."Where we are right now is that we view the Haqqanis and other of
their ilk as, you know, being adversaries and being very dangerous to
Americans, Afghans and coalition members inside Afghanistan, but we are
not shutting the door on trying to determine whether there is some path
forward," Clinton said when asked whether she believed members of the
Haqqani network might reconcile with the Afghan government.
"It's too soon to tell whether any of these groups or any individuals
within them are serious," she said in an interview with Reuters.
Inclusion of the Haqqani network in a hoped-for peace deal -- now a
chief objective in the Obama administration's Afghanistan policy after a
decade of war -- is a controversial idea in Washington.
Officials blame the group for last month's attack on the U.S. embassy
in Kabul and a truck bombing that injured scores of American soldiers.
Jalaluddin Haqqani (R), the Taliban's Minister
for Tribal Affairs, points to a map of Afghanistan during a visit to
Islamabad, Pakistan while his son Naziruddin (L) looks on in this
October 19, 2001 file photograph. REUTERS/Stringer/Files
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