Afghan negotiators resume talks in Doha

ISLAMABAD: Afghan negotiators were resuming talks with the Taliban in Doha on Tuesday aimed at finding an end to decades of relentless conflict even as hopes wane and frustration and fear grow over a spike in violence across Afghanistan that has combatants on both sides blaming the other.

Torek Farhadi, a former Afghan government adviser, said the government and the Taliban are “two warring minorities,” with the Afghan people caught in between — “one says they represent the republic, the other says we want to end foreign occupation and corruption. But the war is (only) about power.”

The stop-and-go talks come amid growing doubt over a US-Taliban peace deal brokered by outgoing President Donald Trump. An accelerated withdrawal of US troops ordered by Trump means just 2,500 American soldiers will still be in Afghanistan when President-elect Joe Biden takes office this month. Biden has advocated keeping a small intelligence-based presence in Afghanistan, but Taliban leaders have flatly rejected any foreign troops. Officials familiar with the US-Taliban peace deal say there is no wiggle room that would allow even a small number of foreign troops to remain.

“The initial opportunity is that several items of the agenda are similar and would be easy to make progress on,” says Nader Nadery, a member of the government’s negotiation team, without giving specifics. Nadery, however, warned that spiraling violence will increase public pressure on government negotiators that could derail talks.

Perhaps one of the trickiest items is a power-sharing agreement. There is little evidence that the Kabul government will be willing to share power or that the Taliban will be flexible on who would be acceptable in a transitional administration.

Taliban spokesman Mohammad Naeem said the Taliban were ready for a resumption of the negotiations, adding that a ceasefire is one of the agenda items, without elaborating. Anas Haqqani seemed to indicate in a tweet last month that he had problems with some of the so-called progressive changes in Afghanistan.