DOHA: Talks between the US and the Taliban seeking to end nearly 18 years of war in Afghanistan resumed in Doha on Saturday, the Taliban said.
“Today the talks began,” the insurgent group’s spokesman in Doha Suhail Shaheen told AFP.
The US wants to withdraw thousands of troops and is hoping for a breakthrough. However, any drawdown would be on condition the insurgent group renounces al-Qaeda and curbs attacks.
Washington is hoping to strike a peace deal with the Taliban by September 1 — ahead of Afghan polls due the same month, and US presidential polls due in 2020.
US President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House on Friday that “we’ve made a lot of progress. We’re talking”.
A coalition led by Washington ousted the Taliban, accusing it of harbouring al-Qaeda militants who claimed the September 11, 2001 attacks against the US that killed almost 3,000 people.
Officials said the new round of talks is “most crucial” phase of negotiations to end the 18-year war in Afghanistan.
Senior officials privy to the talks said a peace agreement could be expected at the end of the eighth round of talks, possibly before August 13, and would enable foreign forces to be withdrawn from the war-torn country.
Zalmay Khalilzad, the US peace envoy for Afghanistan who has held a series of meetings with Taliban leaders since last year, reached Doha on Friday night.
“Just got to Doha to resume talks with the Taliban. We are pursuing a peace agreement not a withdrawal agreement,” Khalilzad wrote on Twitter.
“A peace agreement that enables withdrawal. Our (US) presence in Afghanistan is conditions-based, and any withdrawal will be conditions-based,” he said, adding the Taliban are signalling they would conclude an agreement. We are ready for a good agreement,” he said.
Two sources with knowledge of the talks said an agreement on the withdrawal of foreign forces in exchange for security guarantees by the Taliban is expected before Aug 13.
About 20,000 foreign troops, most of them American, are now in Afghanistan as part of a US-led Nato mission to train, assist and advise Afghan forces. The Taliban group now controls more territory than at any point since the United States bombed them out of power in 2001.
Two Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen and Zabihullah Mujahid said a 19-member Taliban negotiation team will represent them in the Doha peace talks.
“The issue of forces withdrawal has prolonged the peace talks and delayed the deal,” said a senior Taliban commander based in Afghanistan on conditions of anonymity.
“There was no way we would allow permanent stay of US forces in Afghanistan after signing a peace deal with them,” he said, adding that Taliban will provide complete assurance that no foreign militant group will be allowed to use Afghanistan to launch attacks against the United States and its allies.
Leaders of the insurgent group have repeatedly stated that a ceasefire or talks with the Afghan government and civil society members will not take place until the United States announces a plan for foreign force withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The US President Donald Trump wants combat forces reduced in Afghanistan by the next US presidential election in November 2020, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said last month.
Fighting in Afghanistan has not subsided. More than 1,500 civilians were killed and injured in July, a record monthly toll this year, and the highest number documented in a month since May 2017, United Nations of Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said in a statement on Saturday.
Many Afghans fear a US troop withdrawal announcement will weaken their bargaining power with the Taliban.
The sense of uncertainty revolving around the peace talks has become a source of distress with many Afghans fearing a complete collapse of law and order if the United States fails to protect basic freedom guaranteed under the Afghan constitution.
In another sign of progress, the Afghan government has formed a negotiating team for separate peace talks with the Taliban that diplomats hope could be held as early as later this month.
The Washington Post reported Thursday that an initial deal to end the war would see the US force in Afghanistan reduced to as low as 8,000 from the current level of around 14,000. In exchange, the Taliban would abide by a ceasefire, renounce al-Qaeda, and talk to the Kabul administration.
An Afghan official hinted last week that the government of President Ashraf Ghani was preparing for direct talks with the Taliban, the details of which have yet to be announced.
“We have no preconditions to begin talks, but the peace agreement is not without conditions,” Ghani wrote in Pashto on his Facebook page on Friday ahead of the talks.
“We want a republic government not an emirate,” he said, a challenge to the Taliban who have insisted on reverting to the “Islamic Emirate” name Afghanistan bore under its rule. “The negotiations will be tough, and the Taliban should know that no Afghan is inferior in religion or courage to them.”
