Taliban form negotiating team ahead of peace talks

ISLAMABAD — In one of the most significant shakeups in years, the Taliban put the son of the movement’s feared founder in charge of its military wing and added powerful figures to its negotiating team ahead of expected talks aimed at ending Afghanistan’s decades of war, Taliban officials say.

As head of a newly united military wing, Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, 30, brings his father’s fiercely uncompromising reputation to the battlefield.

Equally significant is the addition of four members of the insurgent group’s leadership council to the 20member negotiating team, Taliban officials told the Associated Press.

The shuffle overseen by Taliban leader Mullah Hibatullah Akhunzada is meant to tighten his control over the movement’s military and political arms, the officials said on condition of anonymity.

Analysts say the shakeup could be good news for negotiations with Afghanistan’s political leadership in Kabul, and a sign of just how serious the Taliban are taking this second — and perhaps most critical — step in a deal Washington signed with the insurgents in February.

“I’d say it appears to be a positive development because the Taliban are creating a delegation that seems more senior and more broadbased than they’ve used to date,” said Andrew Wilder, vice president of the Asia Program at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington.

When the U.S. signed the deal with the Taliban on Feb. 29, after more than a year and a half of negotiations, it was touted as Afghanistan’s best chance at peace in four decades of war. It was also seen as a road map for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, ending America’s longest war.

On Monday, fourandahalf months since the signing, chief U.S. negotiator and peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad tweeted that “a key milestone in the implementation of the U.S.Taliban agreement” had been reached as American troop numbers dropped to 8,600 from about 12,000 and five bases were closed.

Even as Khalilzad chastised increased insurgent attacks on Afghan security forces, he said the Taliban had been true to their word not to attack U.S. and NATO troops.

The Taliban have stepped up their military activity against government forces since Yaqoob’s appointment in May, a sign that the religious militia under Yaqoob’s leadership may see battlefield wins as improving their leverage at the negotiation table.

Hopes have been raised for a July start to negotiations even as the Taliban and the Kabul government seem bogged down in the final release of prisoners, a prerequisite to the start of negotiations.