Uzbek president softens stance on Taliban

In the wake of a meeting last week of a six-nation grouping of Central Asian states, signatories of a Collective Security Agreement, to discuss the situation in Afghanistan, President Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan has softened his rhetoric regarding the Taliban movement. “The Taliban do not represent a threat to Uzbekistan,” news organisations quoted Karimov as saying. He said the Taliban had controlled the nearest Afghan frontier town to Uzbekistan for more than a year without any sign of aggression. “We might not like them, but this force has become the dominating one and we don’t need any escalation, conflicts or wars,” Karimov said. Uzbekistan was in June accused of aiding the opposition Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, when Uzbek jets were alleged to have violated Afghan airspace near the border town of Hayraton.