Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 268: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the position in relation to the war in Afghanistan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38700/08]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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As I stated in the House on 9th October last in reply to a Parliamentary Question, I am deeply concerned about the situation in Afghanistan.

The security situation, of course, gives grounds for particular concern. The UN Secretary General concluded in his most recent report on Afghanistan, issued on 23rd September, that the situation deteriorated markedly over the last six months. He noted that the influence of the insurgency had expanded beyond the traditionally volatile areas and had increased in provinces neighbouring Kabul. Incidents stemming from cross-border activities from Pakistan had increased significantly and attacks on aid-related targets and NGOs had become more frequent and more deadly. Tragically, the tactics of the insurgency, as well as military operations, had caused the number of civilian deaths to rise sharply.

Casualty figures for the period since the Secretary General's report give no grounds for optimism that the situation is likely to improve in the near future. The suicide attack on the Ministry of Information and Culture in Kabul last week, in which, in addition to the suicide bomber, at least two people were killed, shows the capacity of the insurgency to strike at Government targets in the heart of the capital. The recent killings of foreign aid workers are especially tragic and regrettable and will certainly impact on reconstruction efforts and humanitarian operations.

The crisis in Afghanistan is further complicated by the security situation in neighbouring Pakistan where Taliban and other foreign militants have been sheltered by regional leaders in areas bordering Afghanistan. As a result, cross-border insurgency from Pakistan into Afghanistan remains a significant problem.

One significant and encouraging development, however, is the recent improvement in relations between the leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan and their agreement to cooperate to combat cross-border insurgency. I welcome, in particular, the meeting between the Foreign Ministers of the two countries in New York in September in which they reiterated their resolve to fight jointly extremist elements along the Pakistan-Afghan border and the "mini-jirga" tribal meeting in Islamabad last week, where Afghan and Pakistani leaders agreed to cooperate more closely to fight the insurgency on both sides of their common border.

One strategy that the mini-jirga agreed to adopt is to begin discussions with the "opposition" understood to mean the Taliban. This could certainly involve risk, but the approach of trying to dissociate the many Taliban members who are not strongly ideological fundamentalists from their hardcore, militant, leadership — leaving the latter more vulnerable to defeat — may be a risk worth taking.