Qatar-Taliban ties
Event feted as triumph for peace efforts has turned into a disaster
In June 2013, the Taliban officially opened their office in Doha. Although the office was closed after controversies, Taliban families have remained in Qatar. One Afghan businessman said “they live in comfortable homes all paid by the Qataris.”
When in June 2013 the Taliban officially opened their office in the Qatari capital, the stakeholders had their own reasons to support the move.
But while the US wanted a place for talks that would reach a deal for the release of a US hostage and other strategic benefits and while the Taliban wanted to raise their public profile, Qatar was mainly interested in being under the international spotlight it craves. However, the event feted as a triumph for peace efforts and direct talks quickly turned into a debacle in public relations and in diplomacy when the office was criticised for its offensive a nameplate that included the words ‘Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’ and Taliban’s white-and-black banner on a flagpole.
Criticism
The Afghan foreign ministry criticised the bad faith in setting up the office. Qatar removed both symbols after the Afghan president said the Taliban were being allowed to call their office an embassy and were being presented as a government in exile.
Although the office was closed, Taliban families have reportedly remained in Qatar.
One Afghan businessman said, “They live in comfortable homes all paid for by the Qataris.”
Doha has been since the mid-1990s keen on becoming a household name in the region and, more importantly, internationally. A first step was to launch Al Jazeera television network to serve the media arm for the country’s political and status ambitions. Reports said the emir wanted to be seen as the ‘Arab Henry Kissinger’.