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Thursday March 28, 2024

Afghan govt, Taliban begin talks in Qatar

Both say it isn’t a peace dialogue; Pakistan welcomes move; asks Taliban to stop spring offensive

By our correspondents
May 04, 2015
KABUL: Afghan government officials and the Taliban began two days of meetings on Sunday in the Gulf state of Qatar, and for once neither side denied that the sessions were taking place.
Both were also quick to insist that they were not holding peace talks. A statement by the Taliban called the meetings a “research conference,” while Afghan government officials described them as “scientific discussions,” the New York Times reported.
Still, the talks are being hosted by the Pugwash Conferences, a Nobel Prize-winning science group dedicated to promoting peace, and expectations were high despite the official demurrals.
“These are not peace talks. But it would be fair to say that this is the most encouraging development we’ve seen in a while,” said Mohammad Ismail Qasimyar, the foreign policy committee chief at the Afghan government’s High Peace Council. “After all, peace talks between China and America started with a ping-pong game.”
Many of the figures sent by the Afghan government and the Taliban were the sort who would be likely to participate in any formal peace talks. In addition, according to Afghan news accounts, Pakistan and other regional players also sent representatives.
This is not the first such Pugwash Conference, and there have been other Tier Two talks, as indirect, non-negotiating meetings between the two sides have been termed. But in the past, such talks were held under a cloak of secrecy, and actual peace discussions between representatives of the government and the Taliban were routinely denied when news of them became public.
So it came as a surprise when the Taliban issued a news release about the current talks, being held in Doha, the capital of Qatar, confirming not only that they were taking place but also who was attending.
The Taliban said that the eight members of their delegation were all attending in their personal capacities and this “should not be misconstrued as peace or negotiation talks”. The delegation was made up, however, of people like Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, a former top Taliban official and a fluent English speaker who often met with foreign visitors during the Taliban regime, and Sohail Shaheen, the spokesman for the Taliban’s Qatar office, one of the Taliban leaders whose names were removed in 2010 from a United Nations sanctions list as an early step toward confidence-building in the peace process.
Stanikzai was heading the Taliban delegation, the militants said, while stressing that all the eight men were there privately and individually.Most of the other Taliban representatives are still on the United Nations sanctions list, including Stanikzai.
The location of the talks was also significant, as the Qataris have expressed an interest in acting as intermediaries in the Afghan peace talks and last year hosted an aborted effort for the Taliban to open an office in Qatar as a place to hold talks.
On the Afghan governmentside, local news accounts also said that representatives attending included an array of individuals, among them former members of the Taliban who have reconciled with the Afghan government; Tajik, Pashtun and Uzbek leaders; and the High Peace Council’s secretary general, Masoom Stanikzai (no relation to the Taliban delegation head).
It was unclear if there would be any official announcement from the Afghan government during or after the talks, which are expected to conclude after a second day on Monday. But the Taliban’s news release added that “a statement for participation in the conference has also been prepared which will be shared with our respected readers at an appropriate time.”“This is an opportunity,” Qasimyar said. “They get together, they may have a chance to have tea or dinner or lunch at the same table, and that’s all right.”
NNI adds from Islamabad: Pakistan backed the Afghan Taliban talks with the Afghan govt representatives in Qatar.Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry also urged the Taliban to stop its spring offensive and directly talk to the Kabul government.
Aizaz told reporters in Islamabad that Pakistan welcomes the talks in Qatar, though unofficial, but it wants the Taliban to pursue its objectives through peaceful means.“Our message is very clear that they (Taliban) have to talk. If they talk and are able to contribute to peace in Afghanistan, that is the best thing that can happen to us and the whole region,” he said.
He said that Pakistan is determined to improve relations with Afghanistan and is “quietly making dedicated efforts” to push the peace process between Kabul and the Taliban.The foreign secretary refused to discuss further details of what he described as a “highly sensitive” matter.