Russian bid for Taliban talks angers Kabul

KABUL: Russia has quietly invited a group of senior Afghan politicians to talks with the Taliban in Moscow, bypassing President Ashraf Ghani’s government in a move that has angered officials in Kabul who say it could muddle the US-backed peace process.

The invitations, extended over the past two months by Russian diplomats in Kabul, were confirmed to Reuters by six of the eight leaders, who include former Afghan President Hamid Karzai, or their aides, and by other leading politicians with ties to the Afghan government.

The Russian Embassy in Kabul declined to comment. Russia in August proposed holding multilateral peace talks in Moscow and invited 12 countries and the Taliban to attend a summit the following month. But the meeting was postponed after Ghani rejected the invitation on the grounds that talks with the Taliban should be led by the Afghan government.

The United States had also declined to attend. The U.S. Embassy in Kabul declined to comment further. Three senior Afghan officials said the government was unhappy that Moscow was pressing ahead with plans for talks.

“We requested Russia to cancel the summit because talking to the Taliban at multiple forums will further complicate the peace process backed by the U.S., but they rejected the request,” said a senior Afghan official who has been holding discussions with Russia.

Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday that she hoped to be able to announce details of the conference “in the coming days”. Zakharova told reporters at a briefing that the date and participant list were being finalised, but that Russia wanted to be absolutely sure before announcing anything publicly.

Diplomatic engagement between the Taliban and the United States gained momentum in October, after U.S. special envoy for peace in Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad met Taliban leaders in Qatar. But many Afghan politicians say they have been left out of the process.

Karzai, who ran the country for 13 years following the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001 but has become a vocal critic of U.S. policy, is among those planning to travel to Moscow. “Karzai will travel to Moscow because any opportunity for peace talks with the Taliban must not be ignored,” said Mohammad Yusof Saha, a spokesman for the former president.

Atta Mohammad Noor, a leader in the Jamiat-i Islami party and former governor of the strategic Balkh province, said he too would attend. Noor, a powerful figure among Afghanistan’s ethnic Tajiks who was once a commander in the anti-Soviet Mujahiddin, said he had no problem with the United States and Ghani holding private talks with the Taliban, “but they cannot decide whether we should talk to the Taliban or not”. He said many Afghans were realizing that “a single fixed formula prescribed by one foreign power will not help Afghans attain peace”.