Afghanistan has begun Taliban talks

President Karzai says Afghanistan has begun Taliban talks:




Representatives had begun talks with the Taliban and the American government said President Hamid Karzai yesterday in an interview with The Wall Street Journal which is a potentially significant development suggesting that the Taliban were dropping objections to face-to-face discussions with the Afghan government. A member of the Afghan High Peace Council talked to the Afghan government contacts to The New York Times this week and said that there had been an agreement with Taliban representatives to go ahead with peace talks in Qatar, but there was no date decided yet for meetings. Mr Karzai also sated that “there have been contacts between the U.S. government and the Taliban, there have been contacts between the Afghan government and the Taliban, and there have been some contacts that we have made, all of us together, including the Taliban.” A High Peace Council member, Haji Musa Hotak, said that “some talks have been started with the Taliban, and there is willingness among the Taliban, they spoke with their leadership and got them to agree to talks in Qatar with the Afghan government but it is still too early to say what the Taliban want.” A spokesman for the United States National Security Council,Tommy Vietor, declined to comment on Mr. Karzai’s disclosure, but made clear in the past that there are a series of steps that are necessary before real peace negotiations could begin. There is a deep distrust of the Taliban within the Afghan government and more so in the Afghan population, including in the north and west of the country, where many people who fought the Taliban hold considerable power. Nevertheless, the possibility that the Taliban would entertain continuing direct talks with the Afghan government is significant. In the past, the Taliban have described Mr. Karzai as a “puppet leader” and the Afghan government as a “puppet government.” Ever since the Taliban were ousted in 2001, they have insisted they are the rightful Afghan government. Last year, they have insisted on face-to-face talks with the Americans rather than with the Afghan government. If they continue to talk directly to the Afghan government, it would suggest an admission that the Afghan government is legitimate. It also starts to get key players needed to start discussions in the same room, but the obstacles to real breakthroughs remain tough. Pakistan is also needed for talks since the country hosts the Taliban and has allowed their fighters to live there, raise money and train. Mr. Karzai told The Wall Street Journal that he would be asking for Pakistan’s help at a meeting on Thursday with the Pakistani and Iranian presidents in Islamabad. Consecutive talks would require concessions by both sides, and for those Mr. Karzai would need full support from the Americans because they have control over key bargaining chips that he would need to offer to the Taliban as measures to create trust and persuade them to stop fighting. Among the confidence-building measures that the Americans have discussed with the Taliban is the transfer of Taliban prisoners in Guantanamo Bay. While such actions might be possible, they are politically delicate for President Obama’s administration in an election year.