Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai sprang a surprise on Saturday by affirming for the first time publicly that the “United States is involved in peace talks with the Taliban”. The statement comes against the backdrop of growing tensions over Washington’s efforts to get him to agree to a strategic partnership agreement allowing permanent American and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) military bases.

It overlooks that slowly, steadily, the US is losing its monopoly of conflict resolution in Afghanistan and Karzai can no longer be kept away from networking with regional powers. Karzai’s defiant stance on Saturday comes soon after his return to Kabul from attending the summit meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Astana.

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