‘Unrealistic demands’ behind stalled talks, say Taliban

PESHAWAR: Senior members of the Afghan Taliban said on Saturday the peace talks with the United States stalled due to what they called “unrealistic demands” of US representative for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad asking Taliban to release American professor and announce a ceasefire to end the 17-year-long war in Afghanistan.

“We have realised it in the first meeting with Zalmay Khalilzad a few months ago in the United Arab Emirates that Khalilzad didn’t have that much depth and power to make difficult decisions. However, we wanted to give a chance to peace,” recalled one senior Taliban leader, who claimed to have held first meeting with US delegation headed by US former ambassador for Iraq and Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad.

According to Taliban sources, most of their powerful military commanders opposed peace negotiations with US but their decision-making body or leadership council agreed to continue peace talks with the United States if they could find a negotiated settlement to the Afghan conflict.

“We were assured by the US officials that initially three major issues, including withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan, prisoners’ swap and lifting ban on movement of Taliban leaders would be discussed in the peace talks,” said the Taliban leader.

He said the talks were going to the right direction and they felt they might find solution to most of the issues through dialogue.

“However, in our last meeting in the UAE, where first time other regional powers including Saudi Arabia, UAE and Pakistan also participated, US backtracked from its earlier commitment and asked us to first release the American professor whom we kidnapped after an attack on American University in Kabul. Secondly, the US delegation asked us to announce an unconditional ceasefire,” he recalled and claimed it sent a wave of concern among the Taliban leaders. He said they got a serious message from the meeting in the UAE that US was no longer sincere in peace talks but Saudi Arabia decided to host another meeting in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, in the second week of January 2019.

“And we have selected our delegation members for the peace talks in Riyadh when Saudi authorities approached us and wanted us to announce a ceasefire in the next meeting there. We rejected their proposal and refused to attend the meeting in Riyadh,” said the Taliban official. Also, he said Saudis wanted Taliban to include the Afghan government in the peace process which they had rejected, saying that the Kabul administration was powerless to make decisions.

According to senior Taliban leaders, a harsh stance of the Saudis and Khalilzad in fact derailed the peace process.

“Khalilzad knowing that the professor is seriously sick told us that the US would not spare you (Taliban) if something happened to the American professor in Taliban captivity. We told him that he is sick but we are taking care of him and then reminded him that US had already used all its resources to eliminate Taliban but finally they chose table talks to resolve the issue,” he said.

Another senior Taliban leader, on condition of anonymity, said after they boycotted peace talks in Saudi Arabia, US approached Pakistan and UAE to put pressure on Taliban so they can sit with them and the Afghan government for peace talks.

“Pakistan arrested our senior leader and our representative for the same country, Hafiz Mohibullah and also launched crackdown on Taliban leaders and their relatives hiding in Pakistan. Then our top leadership issued a strong-worded statement and warned they would pull out of peace talks with the US forever if certain powers (without mentioning Pakistan’s name) didn’t stop their pressure tactics. And then Pakistan freed their leader after a few days of detention,” said the Taliban leader.

He said US delegation then went to Pakistan and wanted Pakistani authorities to arrange their meeting with members of the Afghan Taliban. “Pakistan contacted us but we told them we would not hold any meeting with the Afghan government. We told them we would like to continue our peace talks with US delegation but if we are assured that three issues, US withdrawal from Afghanistan, prisoners’ swap and lifting ban on movement of Taliban leaders to be discussed,” said the Taliban leader.

According to Taliban sources, besides the two “unrealistic demands” of US delegation, their peace talks were damaged by the internal differences of Arab countries particularly animosity between Saudi Arabia and Qatar and Qatar and UAE. These regional powers are using the so-called peace talks for their own interests and exploiting the situation.