US Diplomats negotiate with Taliban

U.S. diplomats held talks with Taliban delegates on Monday in the United Arab Emirates to discuss ways to end the war in Afghanistan.

This is the first instance in the US’s 17-year long war in the country which resulted in the overthrow of the Islamist Taliban government.

Background

The US invaded Afghanistan following the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, and blamed the Afghan government for hosting the terror organisation: Al-Qaeda. The Taliban insurgency began after the group experienced a fall post the 2001 War in Afghanistan. The Taliban forces were fighting against the Afghan government and against the US-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

The insurgents now control more than 40 per cent of the country. The UN mission in Afghanistan has reported that nearly 1,692 civilians were killed in violence in the first six months of 2018. This is the highest six-month death toll since the systematic documentation of civilian casualties began in 2009.

The war's public aims were to dismantle al-Qaeda and to deny it a safe base of operations in Afghanistan by removing the Taliban from power. The War in Afghanistan is the second longest war in United States history, behind the Vietnam War.

Seventeen years after the US-led invasion that ended Taliban rule, militants control nearly half of Afghanistan and carry out near-daily attacks on local security forces and government officials.

Analysis

Saudi, Pakistani and UAE officials also were participating in the meeting, one of several held between U.S. diplomats and representatives of the Afghan insurgent group in recent months, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in a statement emailed to reporters.

Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the UAE were the only nations that recognized the Taliban’s radical Islamist government when it ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until its ouster in late 2001.

There was no official confirmation from the presidential palace in Kabul of whether any government official participated in the meeting. However, Afghanistan’s national security adviser, Hamdullah Mohib, said in a tweet that he met Sunday in the UAE with officials from the three countries and the United States.

Mohib said he discussed President Ashraf Ghani’s roadmap for peace, which allows Taliban representatives to take part in the political process and run for office. The plan also raises the prospect of constitutional changes while preserving what the government describes as the country’s achievements since the militants were driven from power in Kabul by Afghan resistance forces and U.S. airstrikes.

Mohib said he had discussed the “direct engagement of the Afghan government with the Taliban for an intra-Afghan dialogue.”

Shah Hussain Murtazawi, a spokesman for Afghan President Ghani, said the U.S.-Taliban meeting was being coordinated with the Afghan government.

“The Afghan government supports any effort and action that paves the way for an Afghan-led peace process,” he said. Ultimately, “it is the Afghan government that signs and parliament that approves any peace agreement.”

A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Kabul described the meeting as “part of efforts by the United States and other international partners to promote an intra-Afghan dialogue aimed at ending the conflict in Afghanistan.”

The Taliban has repeatedly refused to deal directly with Ghani’s government, which the group considers a U.S. puppet that is inefficient and racked by internal divisions.

Ahead of the UAE talks, officials said Zalmay Khalilzad, the new U.S. envoy for Afghanistan, would lead the meeting. He has held at least two meetings with Taliban officials in Qatar, where the group maintains a political office. The Taliban said last month that its representatives met with Khalilzad for three days in Doha, the Qatari capital.

An interim suggestion was the formation of an interim government instead of holding a presidential election as scheduled in April. The aim would be to allow the peace process to succeed and then hold the vote with the Taliban’s participation.

However, members of Ghani’s administration have categorically rejected the idea, insisting on going ahead with the election in April despite widely mismanaged parliamentary polls in October that were held took place after more than three years of delay.

Assessment

Our assessment is that the Taliban and Islamic State are more active than ever before in Afghanistan. We believe that there is presently no military solution to ending the war in Afghanistan. Taliban who has gained support from Iran and Pakistan is participating in efforts to reach a settlement with Trump administration and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s government in return for meeting the demands of their group.