The United States and a Taliban envoy Tayeb Agha held three meetings in Germany and Qatar which appear to have accomplished little more than confirming the man’s identity, and perhaps not even that, The New York Times reported while quoting officials familiar with the talks. Agha, an English-speaking Afghan and former personal aide to the elusive one-eyed Taliban leader Mullah Omar, was arrested by Pakistani authorities last year and then released, leading American officials to assume that he is negotiating on behalf of the Taliban with the blessings of the Pakistani authorities, the report said.
“We’re at that stage where it’s very confusing,” one senior administration official said, adding that the meetings could not even be called talks, let alone peace talks. The wariness in part reflects the fact that the Obama administration has been badly embarrassed by previous diplomatic efforts. An Afghan was given substantial sums of cash last year and was flown on a NATO aircraft in the belief that he was a Taliban envoy, but he turned out to be an impostor.
The newspaper says President Barack Obama’s strategy for gradually ending the war in Afghanistan relies heavily on peace talks with the Taliban. But those talks have hardly begun, and even some administration officials acknowledge that the odds of success are slim. However, the US has imposed significant conditions for any reconciliation with the Taliban. It is uncertain whether the Taliban or even parts of its leadership are willing to accept the conditions, and many experts are deeply sceptical, the report said. Among the many reasons, it is not clear that Taliban want to negotiate, or who even represents the organisation.
