Latest round of Taliban peace talks cancelled
The Taliban and the US have cancelled the latest round of peace talks after it was unexpectedly moved to Qatar.
Two days of talks scheduled to begin today were cancelled yesterday over the US push to involve Afghan officials, discussions on a ceasefire and details of the Taliban’s request of a prisoner exchange.
“The US officials insisted that the Taliban should meet the Afghan authorities in Qatar and both sides were in disagreement over declaring a ceasefire in 2019,” a Taliban source told Reuters. “Both sides have agreed to not meet in Qatar.”
It would have been the fourth round of talks between the Taliban and the US special envoy to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, in recent months.
The Taliban wanted a US withdrawal, a prisoner exchange and a ban on the movement of their leaders lifted.
They said they demanded the release of 25,000 prisoners and would free 3,000, but the US was not ready to discuss that.
The Taliban refused to agree to US demands that the Afghan government attend, saying they were simply a proxy of America. The US is seeking a lasting peace to the country’s longest war, which has cost nearly $1 trillion (Dh3.67tn) and thousands of lives.
Mr Khalilzad was appointed US special envoy in September last year but the Taliban said they did not think he had enough power.
He still intends to visit the UAE, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and China to continue the discussions, the Taliban said, but his office was not available to confirm the details.
Previous talks in the UAE and Qatar have focused on confidence building and the path to an intra-Afghan peace solution.
The next round of talks was supposed to take place in Saudi Arabia next month, but earlier yesterday Taliban officials said talks would take place today in Qatar.
Today’s discussions were due to only include the US and the Taliban, in contrast to other talks in which Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Pakistan were involved. Iran said it was holding parallel talks with the Taliban.
Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani is anxious to meet the Taliban before presidential elections in June this year. The country is going through a particularly bloody time and civilians are bearing the brunt of the diplomatic impasse.
Suicide bombings are a near daily occurrence and as much as 45 per cent of the country is in dispute or under Taliban rule.
An international coalition led by the US after the 9/11 attacks removed the Taliban from power but they quickly developed a strong insurgency, using Pakistan as shelter.
At its peak, the US had 100,000 troops in the country, but in 2014 they withdrew most of their forces.
Now, a US-led Nato operation provides counter-terrorism and air support to the Afghan army. As peace talks gained momentum, a draft agreement drawn up by the influential US think tank Rand Corporation was circulated among Afghan officials and diplomats in Kabul.
The document suggests that the US and Nato withdraw their missions in phases over 18 months, but the US may continue to provide civilian assistance.