- Afghan president tells aides Gen Raheel Sharif has conveyed Taliban’s willingness to come to dialogue table
- ISPR says Pakistan has always supported dialogue and wants it to be absolutely transparent, Afghan owned and Afghan-led
- US says not directly involved in peace talks between Afghan govt and Taliban
After more than a decade of war, formal talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban will begin in the coming weeks, the country’s president has told key aides.
According to a senior government official, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani believes meetings could begin in early March after Pakistan signalled its support for the move. Previous western-sponsored attempts to get Afghan government and Taliban representatives around the same table failed under Ghani’s predecessor, Hamid Karzai.
Although the Afghan Taliban’s spokesman denied there were any plans for talks, hopes are rising following Pakistan’s decision to pressurise the insurgent leadership.
On Tuesday, Pakistan Army chief General Raheel Sharif travelled to Kabul to tell Ghani the Taliban were increasingly amenable to discussions.
Pakistan has considerable influence over the Taliban, a movement that was supported by Islamabad in the 1990s and which since 2001 has been free to use Pakistani territory to launch attacks against the western-backed government in Kabul.
Since becoming president last year, Ghani has worked assiduously to secure Pakistan’s help in bringing the Taliban to the negotiating table by addressing Pakistani fears that Afghanistan is a base for its enemies.
Ghani has won plaudits from Islamabad by putting on a hold an arms deal with Pakistan’s arch-rival India and by deploying troops against anti-Pakistan militants based in Afghan territory.
In return Ghani expects Pakistan to tell the Taliban to enter negotiations and drastically reduce the surge in militant attacks inside Afghanistan.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said reports of an immediate breakthrough were premature but that progress had been made amid the “quite unprecedented” improvement in relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
“These things have been going on for the last few weeks,” he said, referring to contacts between Taliban and the Afghan government. “We suggest the right kind of people to talk to and that kind of thing, but this is an Afghan-led process.”
Pakistan has also been pressured to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table by powerful ally China, which is alarmed by the overspill of militancy in the region into western China.
Previous attempts to find a political solution to the 13-year war in Afghanistan came to nothing. In 2013, the Taliban was allowed to open an “office” in Doha, the capital of the Gulf state of Qatar, where talks could be held.
But the process collapsed before it could begin after the Afghan government reacted furiously to the Taliban being allowed to raise their flag over the building as if it was the embassy of a sovereign power.
On Thursday, the US embassy in Kabul denied reported claims by Afghan Taliban sources that insurgent leaders would hold an initial round of talks with US officials as early as Thursday.
“There is no truth to the reports of US involvement in direct talks with the Taliban,” a US diplomat said.
Ajmal Obaid Abidy, spokesman for Ghani, said the international community had accepted demands that peace talks be conducted between the Afghan government and the Taliban, not with outside actors. So the reports of directs talks between the US and the Taliban, Abidy said, “are only rumours”.
Michael Semple, one of the world’s experts on the movement, said Doha was the most likely site of any talks as the Taliban’s “political commission” is already based there. But he warned there was no guarantee talks would succeed given the Taliban have ramped up attacks in recent months.
“I don’t think we’ve seen the signs on the Taliban side that they are preparing to end the war,” he said. “Maybe there will be a round of talks, but the real test will be whether there will be another spring military campaign.”
Afghan analysts say Ghani will not be able to sustain his tilt towards Pakistan, which is proving unpopular with sections of the public, unless he is rewarded with a sharp decline in violence.
This week Ghani attempted to sooth the concerns of powerbrokers, including former president Hamid Karzai, who was famously distrustful of Pakistan.
“Ghani’s biggest challenge is if the coffins keep coming,” said Bilal Sarwary, one of the country’s top journalists. “But the Taliban have only been preparing to fight.”
Earlier on Thursday, Reuters had quoted senior Pakistani army and diplomatic officials as saying that the Afghan Taliban have signalled through the Pakistani military that they are willing to open peace talks, which could be held later in the day.
The Reuters report had also quoted sources within the Afghan Taliban as saying that their negotiators would hold the first round of peace talks with US officials in Qatar later on Thursday, although no comment was immediately available from Qatari officials.
“The first session will take place today in Qatar and then there would be another session on Friday. Let us see what happens as talks before did not yield any results,” a senior member of the Afghan Taliban had told Reuters by telephone from Qatar.
PAKISTAN SUPPORTS AFGHAN RECONCILIATION:
The Pakistani military’s media wing said that reconciliation between Afghan government and Afghan Taliban to bring lasting peace and stability in Afghanistan always comes up during any meeting related to Afghanistan.
“Pakistan has always supported such process, and re-emphasised it to be absolutely transparent, Afghan owned and Afghan led. While onus for such negotiations to succeed lies on both parties concerned, Pakistan in all sincerity will support the process as peace in Afghanistan will contribute to peace in the region. We hope all stake holders will continue to act with responsibility not to allow detractors of peace to succeed,” said the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) in a statement.