Intended to bring peace to the region, the US-Taliban talks may be fast running the danger of being unpopular with the Kabul government’s suspicions of the political ambitions of chief US negotiator Zalmay Khalilzad, who has been openly accused by Afghan National Security Adviser Hamidullah Mohib of having presidential ambitions. The Kabul government obviously feels left out, and Mr Mohib’s remarks gained strength from his being in the USA. Though he was promptly snubbed by the US State Department because Mr Khalilzad was representing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in the talks, his coming out so publicly showed that Afghan President Ashraf Ghani was disturbed by Mr Khalilzad’s actions.
However, Mr Khalilzad seems to be riding with a high hand. Apart from the Afghan government itself, NATO countries with forces in Afghanistan are not happy at not being invited to the talks. More important than their military contribution, the countries collectively account for two-thirds of the aid Afghanistan gets. Since they only made commitments to 2020, they may individually stop both forces and funds.
The Afghan government is showing the effects of these pressures, though perhaps it was unwise to take out its nerves on Pakistan, as it did when its Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the Pakistan Embassy’s counsellor to protest Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Friday remarks at a gathering in Bajaur, saying that his remark about a ‘new government’ in Kabul was interference in its internal affairs. Obviously, President Ashraf Ghani is feeling pressure, for he cannot avoid this July’s presidential election. But that does not seem to be enough to bad-mouth Pakistan. Afghan resentment of Pakistan can be traced to India, because India is unhappy with the USA for giving Pakistan importance in the Afghan peace process because of its leverage with the Taliban.
President Ghani is to blame for this, and should remember that US-Taliban talks are not meant to prevent his re-election. His fear of being a one-term president may be well-grounded, but for that he has only himself to blame, for it would mean that the four years of his first term did not bring about the positive change that would lead to re-election. While the USA and the Taliban work to get out of their respective straitjackets, all other parties, whether the USA’s allies or the Afghan government, should focus on an end to the 40 years of fighting that the negotiators are trying to end.
