Peace talks on Afghanistan open in Qatar

DOHA, Qatar — The Taliban and the Afghan government began historic peace talks in Qatar on Saturday, aimed at shaping a powersharing government that would end decades of war that have consumed Afghanistan and left millions dead and displaced.

If realized, a peace deal would be the first time in generations that a new form of Afghan government was not being established at the point of a gun: The current model was ushered in by the U.S. invasion that toppled the Taliban’s harsh Islamic regime in 2001, and each previous one back to the 1979 Soviet invasion was set off by coup, collapse or conquest.

But as the talks begin, against the backdrop of a U.S. troop pullout and grievous violence against Afghan officials and civilians, some critics of the process argued that the Taliban insurgency was still, in essence, holding a gun to the government’s head.

The peace talks opened Saturday morning in Doha, the Qatari capital, with formal ceremonies held under tight security and strong coronavirus restrictions. The negotiations will be complicated at every turn by the threat of continued insurgent assaults, political divisions after a disputed election, decades of loss and grievance and foreign powers pulling Afghan factions in opposing directions.

“We have come here with the goodwill and good intention to stop the 40 years of bloodshed and achieve a countrywide and lasting peace,” Abdullah Abdullah, chairman of Afghanistan’s High Council for National Reconciliation and the leader of the delegation from Kabul, said at the opening ceremony. “The current conflict has no winner through war and military means, but there will be no loser if this crisis is resolved politically and peacefully through submission to the will of the people.”

The Taliban’s deputy leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, said the insurgents would participate in the talks “with full sincerity,” and he urged both sides to exercise calm and patience.

Baradar offered little detail about the Taliban’s vision for a future Afghanistan, except in broad strokes. But many on the Afghan negotiating team said his tone — in contrast to previous Taliban speeches in public forums — was measured and offered hope.

“We seek an Afghanistan that is independent, sovereign, united, developed and free — an Afghanistan with an Islamic system in which all people of the nation can participate without discrimination and live harmoniously with each other in an atmosphere of brotherhood,” he said.

The direct negotiations became possible after the U.S. signed a deal with the Taliban in February that began a 14-month phased withdrawal of the remaining American troops from Afghanistan and pressured the Afghan government to free 5,000 Taliban prisoners.

Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. special envoy for Afghan peace, said there was still an opportunity for the country to reach some sort of equilibrium.

“The Afghan tragedy has been not being able to get to an agreement on a formula and then stick to it,” Khalilzad said. “There was a great victory after the Soviet departure, the Afghans had this great victory. The rest of the world benefited from it a lot: We became the only superpower, Eastern Europe got liberated, Central Asia got freed. But Afghanistan continued this disintegration. The Afghans — they won, but they lost.

“But now they have another chance to get to a formula — where imposing one group’s will on the rest with the force of arms has not been a successful formula. The historic record is not encouraging, but the lessons could be instructive for them.”