In Afghanistan, a Rare Step Toward Peace

A peace initiative launched last year by the Afghan government recently passed a rare milestone, even as the wider Taliban-led insurgency continues across much of the country. On Feb. 3, the U.N. Security Council lifted sanctions on Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a warlord and former prime minister known as "The Butcher of Kabul" for his role in the Afghan civil war that presaged the rise of the Taliban in 1994. As a result, Hekmatyar is expected to end his 20-year exile from public life and return to Kabul by March. His homecoming is controversial among many Afghans, but the peace deal should give Kabul cause for optimism on several fronts -- and it may shed light on a potential path toward peace with the Taliban....