America’s backdoor diplomacy is in no way going to end the ongoing deadlock in talks between Taliban and the US, which is likely to continue somewhat indefinitely.
The stalemate is due to persist over “no political will of Washington to fulfill promises”, a senior Taliban commander said on Sunday.
Taliban sources, while stressing that “empty promises” and “hollow claims” would not be entertained anymore, have stressed on involving the issue of release of prisoners in Guantanamo as essential for resumption of the talks in Qatar that were suspended by Taliban a month ago, over their concerns that US was just wasting time, doing nothing concrete.
The sources informed that behind the scenes, the US was constantly striving to convince Taliban leadership for resumption of talks.
“We never beg for peace though we respect it,” a senior Taliban leader in a telephonic conversation told Online.
During the telephonic conversation, Akbar Agha, a cousin of Taliban top negotiator Tayyab Agha and veteran commander, said that the US promised as a first step towards confidence building measures that it would release Taliban detainees as demanded, but has ever since failed to do so.
It was in the last months of 2011 that Taliban and US agreed to kick off political dialogue in Qatar in January this year.
Though sources among the senior leadership of Taliban did not rule out the resumption of peace talks with the US in Qatar, yet they also visualised the inability of Washington to materialise the basis of the Confidence Building Measures agreed in the initial talks.
Taliban are demanding the release of some of their fellows detained in Guantanamo, including Mullah Fazil Akhund, their former chief of army staff who surrendered part of Afghanistan in late 2001; Mullah Nurullah Noori, a former senior governor in the north; and Mullah Khairullah Khairkhawah, a former interior minister.
The US on several occasions had urged Taliban to resume the talks and even reportedly sought Pakistan’s help in this regard.
In a statement, Taliban Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid had declared that they wanted to resolve issues with the international community through dialogue, and the opening of political office in Qatar was the proof of this willingness of Taliban.
“It negates the criticism about Taliban being inaccessible and their (Taliban’s) whereabouts being unknown to contact them for negotiations.
He nevertheless made it clear that attacks against NATO forces in Afghanistan would not be toned down even if negotiations were going on.
Analysts, privy to the development, said that release of detainees is possible in next few months if Qatar could guarantee that the released Taliban leaders would not travel back to Afghanistan for the next few years. Commenting on the US efforts, Akbar Agha said that Americans had made promises, but the implementation remained a problem.
When asked about the chances of the detainees’ release after US elections, he said the game was going on before the elections, as Obama administration was politicking in the United States. Once the elections are over, the negotiations would become further complicated, he added.
Taliban sources said that informal contacts, rather than spontaneous interaction for the resumption of negotiations, was going on, adding that if the US takes things seriously, and removes certain hurdles, things could resume rather officially.