Ahmed Rashid, the respected journalist and author of:
Ahmed Rashid, whose book Descent into Chaos is the definitive work on the Afghan war
spoke at IISS (London) on 21st July 2010, on:
addressed the problems associated with talking to the Taliban, regional tensions, the roles played by Afghanistan and Pakistan, the capacity of the Karzai government to win over the non-Pashtun ethnic groups and the problems that can occur with power sharing agreements.
Link:http://www.iiss.org/programmes/afgha...-and-portents/

This is a video of the talk and Q&A.

In a follow-up in The Spectator under the headline 'Pakistan's double game in Afghanistan':
A few months ago Hamid Karzai would have been thrilled to have confirmation that American officers are speaking openly about how divisions of Pakistani intelligence are helping the Taleban. But after spending eight years criticising the ISI, he recently decided to cosy up to them. This change is crucial to understanding what is really happening in Afghanistan.

Karzai seems to have given up on the ability of the Americans, the Brits and Nato either to defeat the Taleban or even to talk to them. This is why he has turned to Pakistan and Iran: his own freelance attempt to try to broker a ceasefire with the Taleban which would involve a power-sharing deal.
I like the last sentence, yes pithy:
The mess in Afghanistan has just got messier.
Link to article:http://www.spectator.co.uk/essays/al...pakistan.thtml