US, Taliban talks remain inconclusive

PESHAWAR: After their 16 days marathon meetings, the Afghan Taliban and the United States on Tuesday ended the fifth round of peace talks without achieving any tangible outcome, according to Taliban sources.

“After 16 days of continuous peace talks, we decided to end this futile exercise today. We had actually planned to conclude this process on Sunday or Monday but Americans wanted to continue it, which obviously was nothing but waste of time,” said one senior Taliban leader privy to the peace talks in Qatar.

Taliban said the sixth round of talks would be held later, most probably in April. Pleading anonymity, the Taliban leader said three senior US officials had recently joined the peace process but they continued similar old demands from the Taliban and in return they had nothing to offer.

“As usual they wanted Taliban to announce a ceasefire, cut their ties with al-Qaeda and involve the Afghan government in peace talks,” said the Taliban leader. Pleading anonymity, he said they had reminded US officials their initial commitment made with them that they would only talk about the US withdrawal and Taliban’s responsibility not to allow the Afghan soil being used against the US and its allies after their withdrawal.

Taliban said they had explained to the US officials that all members of al-Qaeda had pledged allegiance to their supreme leader Maulvi Sheikh Haibatullah Akhunzada, that’s why they would never ask them to leave Afghanistan. Taliban said they told Americans al-Qaeda in the past 17 years had not planned a single militant attack from Afghanistan.

“Our leadership also refused to announce the ceasefire until and unless they sign a peace agreement with them (US),” he said. Taliban said there was sheer frustration after they realised that nothing was going to be achieved from this longest period of their peace talks. “We talked and talked and the outcome is nothing. In these 16 days, we discussed many issues, some of them completely irrelevant, but couldn’t reach the conclusion,” he said.

Taliban sources said before concluding the peace process, they made it clear on the US officials that they would neither announce the ceasefire nor would sit with the Afghan government for peace talks.

The Taliban said the US officials had initially assured them to focus on two main issues only -- US withdrawal and Taliban’s responsibility that they would not allow the Afghan soil to be used against the US, its allies or any other country after their withdrawal -- however they never fulfilled their commitment and jumped from one issue to other.

“At some point we realised they were making fun of the peace talks. As once they asked our delegation to explain to them about the type of Islamic Shariah which they would install in Afghanistan after their withdrawal. There was frustration everywhere in the peace talks and at one point, our senior member told them that Taliban aren’t their servants and that they don’t need their approval for any future decision,” explained the Taliban leader.

Another Taliban leader, also in Qatar, said the top US officials had recently joined the peace process but they were not in a position to take decisions. “We are still in the same position where we were years ago,” he said.

Taliban said they had already informed their top leadership about failure of the talks and ever-changing demands of the US officials. They said their central leadership had directed them to continue the peace process till its logical end. According to Taliban sources, US officials on Monday and Tuesday remained in touch with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo but they failed to give a clear-cut response about their withdrawal.

“Qatar foreign minister also joined the meeting on Tuesday and made several requests to our leadership to announce a ceasefire so they could continue the peace process, but our leadership explained to him and his delegation members that Americans were not sincere in peace talks with them. Now they would tell us about the next date as we are always ready to talk to them,” he said.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement released to the media that their fifth round of talks saw extensive and detailed discussions regarding two issues that were agreed upon during the January peace process. “Those two issues were the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Afghanistan and preventing anyone from harming others from Afghan soil; how and when will all foreign forces exit Afghanistan and through what method? Similarly, how will the United States and her allies be given assurances about future Afghanistan?” he said. He said progress was achieved on both these issues.

“For now, both sides will deliberate over the achieved progress, share it with their respective leaderships and prepare for the upcoming meeting, the date of which shall be set by both negotiation teams. It should be mentioned that no agreement was reached regarding a ceasefire and talks with the Kabul administration, nor were other issues made a part of the current agenda. Reports by some media outlets in this regard are baseless,” explained the Taliban spokesman.