Jalaluddin Haqqani

Maulana Jalaluddin Haqanni is an Afghan who is now associated with the Taliban, but has been mentioned as a potential participant in a long-term peace process. He is a Pashtun, a member of the Ghilzai tribe, a rival of the dominant Durrani. During the Afghanistan War (1978-1992), he was esp[ecially close to Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence. While he is Afghan, he also identifies with the Miram Shah area of North Waziristan, in Pakistan's Federally Associated Tribal Area.

Like many Afghan leaders, he has shifted alliances many times. Steve Coll described him as "an independent-minded, dangerous man, but someone we could do business with."

Taliban
Haqanni fought with the Taliban but was critical of their attempt to use Ghilzai as "cannon fodder" in 1995. He formed a personal relationship with Osama bin Laden, and served minister of tribal affairs in the Taliban government. Coll said that al-Qaeda first established itself in Haqqani's area. Since he was not from the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar, Coll thinks that the U.S. and Pakistan tried to separate him from the jihadists.

He was the key commander in taking the Shomali Plain, north of Kabul, back from the Northern Alliance. Nevertheless, while he fought with the Taliban, he saw himself as an ISI client and met with them frequently, wanting more support, according to Peter Tomsen, U.S. special envoy and ambassador on Afghanistan, 1989-1992. Tomsen said that ISI directed mudjahden commanders; they did not develop their own strategies. "In the attack on Khost in January of 1991, which was the first major communist bastion to fall after the Soviets left ... there were ISI officers positioned with different mujahideen groups, who wouldn't cooperate with each other in a general offensive, because of their differences. But, the ISI officers were deployed with each group … [including] the Haqqani group."

Munir Akram, Pakistan's ambassador to the U.S.,

Current
Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal, on April 24, 2009, said that Harqqani is "someone who could be reached out to...to negotiate and bring [the Taliban] into the fold." Brent Scowcroft, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs for Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush, seconded the comment.