While the recently concluded intra-Afghan talks held in Paris had raised hopes among Afghans, the Taliban’s inflexible stance and Kabul’s refusal to attend any peace negotiations outside the country could negate any positive denouement of such efforts.
In his address at the Musharano Jirga or Upper House of Afghanistan’s Parliament the other day, Afghan Foreign Minister Dr Zalmai Rassoul categorically said that “any consultative meeting on peace should be held inside Afghanistan”.
The government’s stance was directly in contrast to an earlier vow of the Taliban not to participate in any talks with the government of President Hamid Karzai for as long as there were foreign military forces in the country.
In a statement posted on its website, the Taliban appreciated the Foundation for Strategic Research for holding the Afghan talks, saying it enabled the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (name of the country during Taliban regime) to present its stance with regard to the situation in Afghanistan and its future.
But in its statement, the Taliban rejected any peace talks with the Afghan government and instead called for the immediate withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan.
Rassoul’s statement came just days after a gathering of several Afghan groups in Paris ended. In the dialogue, participants, including a delegation from the Taliban, presented their respective positions on how to resolve the endemic conflict in Afghanistan. Already there were some doubts regarding the success of the Paris conference. “The Paris conference yielded no results towards achieving lasting peace in Afghanistan,” Nazari Pariani, the editor-in-chief of an influential newspaper the Daily Mandegar, told Xinhua news. “The Taliban outfit has already presented its stance in the Paris conference and obviously will not attend the coming Afghan groups’ conference in Turkmenistan,” Pariani said.
Another political analyst and former legislator Mohammad Asim also said that the Taliban would not abandon its armed struggle. “The Taliban prefer to fight instead of agreeing to talk with the government,” he said. The Paris conference, organised by a French think tank, the Foundation for Strategic Research, was attended by the Taliban, other armed militant groups such as the Hekmatyar-led radical Islamic party Hizb-e-Islami and members of the Afghan political opposition. While his foreign minister insisted that any talks with the dissident groups in Afghanistan should be held inside the country, President Karzai has said that his government supports “any sincere efforts to achieve peace in Afghanistan, including the one in Paris”.
Meanwhile, Rassoul had emphasized that the identities of Taliban representatives who attended the Paris intra-Afghan talks should be made known.
In a formal statement, Afghanistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that any direct talks between the government of Afghanistan and the Taliban could take place outside the country only through an official process, including the creation of the Taliban liaison office in Qatar.
The statement came in the wake of reports that the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan was going to arrange a Paris-like Afghan conference possibly in Turkmenistan.
