Pentagon supports Kabul role in peace talks
KABUL: Acting US Defence Secretary Patrick Shanahan said on Monday it was important for the Afghan government to be included in talks to end the country’s 17-year war, an involvement that the Taliban has so far rejected.
Shanahan, making his first trip to Afghanistan in his new role, met US troops and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. He said he had so far not received any direction to reduce the nearly 14,000 US troops in Afghanistan, but noted what he called strong US security interests in the region. Ghani’s government has been shut out of the peace talks between Taliban negotiators and US envoys, with the movement branding it a US puppet. Kabul is concerned that a sharp drawdown of US forces could lead to chaos in the region.
“It is important that the Afghan government is involved in discussions regarding Afghanistan,” Shanahan told reporters traveling with him on the previously unannounced trip. “The Afghans have to decide what Afghanistan looks like in the future. It’s not about the US, it is about Afghanistan.”
Shanahan, who took over the job after Jim Mattis quit in December over policy differences with US President Donald Trump, said he could not make any guarantees because US peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad was leading the talks. “The US military has strong security interests in the region. (The) presence will evolve out of those discussions,” Shanahan said.
He said the aim of his trip was to get an understanding of the situation on the ground from commanders and then brief Trump on his findings.
Shanahan’s meeting with Ghani covered a range of defence issues important to the bilateral relationship, Pentagon spokesman Commander Sean Robertson said.
That included “achieving a political settlement to the war that ensures Afghanistan is never again used as a safe haven from which terrorists can plan and launch terrorist attacks against the United States, our interests and our allies,” Robertson said.
US officials have held several rounds of talks with the Taliban in Qatar since last year in what is widely seen as the most serious bid yet for peace in Afghanistan since the Taliban were ousted by Us-backed Afghan forces in late 2001.
Both sides hailed progress after the latest round last month, although significant obstacles remain. Those include the involvement of the Afghan government. The next round of talks is due in Qatar on February 25.
Michael Kugelman, a South Asia specialist at the Woodrow Wilson Center, said Shanahan’s main priority in Kabul should be to address Afghan government concerns.
“The top priority of Shanahan has to be to impress upon the government that we’re going to do everything we can to get you into this conversation,” Kugelman said.
Afghanistan and neighbouring countries are concerned about the effect of a sudden withdrawal of US forces on the region. An Afghan official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said even the suggestion of US troops leaving was dangerous.
“Of course it has given leverage to the Taliban, there is no question about that,” the official said.
Trump has offered no specifics about when he would bring home US troops from Afghanistan but has said progress in negotiations with the Taliban would enable a troop reduction and a “focus on counterterrorism”.