Afghans, Taliban to restart talks in Qatar

KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan delegates flew to Qatar on Tuesday to reopen peace talks with Taliban leaders amid a rash of mutual recriminations, mixed signals from U.S. officials and a continued spate of prominent civilians’ assassinations .

Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. diplomat who brokered a separate U.S. deal with the Taliban in February, arrived in Kabul on Tuesday from Qatar. He tweeted that he hoped “both sides” would make “real compromises” in the talks, which began in September.

But while both Afghan and Taliban officials have issued recent statements saying they were committed to the talks, their messages were tinged with anger and blame that boded ill for the new round.

The “demand of Afghanistan’s people is that the bloodshed should end forever in this country,” Massoom

Stanekzai, a former national intelligence chief who heads the Kabul delegation, said in a video message posted Tuesday on Twitter.

The Taliban, sidestepping the issue of civilian killings, issued a statement Monday that lashed out at the U.S. government, denouncing what it said were U.S. military airstrikes on civilian areas. It warned that “such pernicious actions” could both threaten their February pact and “jeopardize” progress in resolving issues among Afghans.

American military officials responded Monday, saying that U.S. stated policy is to “defend Afghan forces” against Taliban attacks. They also blamed the insurgents for a recent spate of targeted killings of journalists, civic leaders and government officials.

“The Taliban’s accusations [that] the US violated the US-TB agreement are false,” tweeted Col. Sonny Leggett, the U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan. “The Taliban’s campaign of unclaimed attacks & targeted killings of government officials, civil society leaders & journalists must also cease for peace to succeed.”

The status of the U.S.-Taliban pact is a critical but highly contested factor in the Afghan talks.

Under that deal, the Trump administration agreed to gradually withdraw most U.S. troops by early this year.. In return, Taliban negotiators agreed to reduce violence, avoid targeting American forces and cut ties with al-Qaida and other extremists.

Many Afghans say the Taliban has failed to fulfill those pledges and that the U.S. concessions gave the religious militia too much leverage at the current talks. The insurgents, meanwhile, are worried that the incoming Biden administration will set further conditions before continuing the promised drawdown.

At the moment, though, the message from Washington is confused. On Sunday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo praised the Taliban for not killing any Americans since the pact was signed, suggesting that it will hold. The next day, the U.S. military denounced the rash of civilian killings as an obstacle to peace.

Khalilzad, who is meeting with Pakistani, Afghan and Taliban leaders during his current regional visit called the targeted killings “unacceptable” but did not directly accuse the Taliban.

Other divisions exist about how hard to press the Taliban for a nationwide cease-fire, which it has resisted. In a statement Tuesday , the U.N. special representative for Afghanistan, Deborah Lyons, said a “cessation in fighting would create a better atmosphere for talks”