Afghan Taliban Talks.

Yesterday (29/1/12) it was announced that the Afghan government and the Taliban would meet for face to face talks for the first time in either Saudi Arabia or Turkey. Although talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban is news talks between the United States and the Taliban are now at such an advanced stage the US feel they can have some fun with them. Firstly there was the question of whether the Taliban would set up an office in either Saudi Arabia or Qatar. The subtext here was the US asking where the British Royal Family would like to go into exile. Now the Taliban have set up their office in Qatar the subtext to the question of whether talks with the Afghan government will take place in Saudi Arabia or Turkey is the US floating for discussion whether the Turks or the Saudis will stand a peace keeping force to go into Syria. As Saudi Arabia as part of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) have already pulled out of the observer mission before the wider Arab League did I think it's more a question of whether the US can talk the Turks into standing a peace keeping mission and considering how they behave in Kurdistan would they want them to.

As for the news that RBS Chief Executive Stephen Hester has declined his bonus I think it is just what it is. Hester declining his bonus in order to prevent the opposition Labour Party calling a Parliamentary debate over whether he should get his bonus. The only subtext I can think of is it's the Brits saying the guy in charge of bringing the Syria resolution to the United Nations Security Council is going to be punished for failure.