Afghan delegation, Taleban in Qatar ‘discussion’

KABUL, May 2, (Agencies): An Afghan delegation left for Qatar Saturday where they will hold two days of “open discussion” with Taleban representatives aimed at ending Afghanistan’s long war, according to an official.

“A 20-member Afghan delegation, two from the High Peace Council, left to attend talks in Qatar on Sunday and Monday,” Abdul Hakim Mujahid, first deputy of the council, told AFP.

“It will be an open discussion, based on peace talks in Afghanistan,” Mujahid said, adding that representatives from Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Taleban would be in attendance.

The High Peace Council was established by former Afghan president Karzai in 2010 to negotiate peace with the Taleban and other insurgent groups, but so far there has been very little progress.

The Taliban’s official spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, confirmed that an eight-strong Taleban delegation would attend the event, which is being organised by the Pugwash Council, a global organisation that promotes dialogue to resolve conflicts.

However, the Taleban’s attendance “does not mean peace talks or negotiations at all,” the Taliban’s spokesman cautioned.

Previous efforts to open dialogue with the Taliban have collapsed.

The group opened an office in Qatar in June 2013 as the first move towards a possible peace deal, but it shut a month later after enraging thenAfghan president Hamid Karzai by styling itself as the unofficial embassy of a government-inexile.

The Taleban have denied rumours of having previously engaged in talks with the Afghan government and have always insisted that this would only happen if foreign forces withdraw unconditionally from Afghanistan.

Last month the Taleban launched their spring offensive across Afghanistan, stepping up attacks on government and foreign targets and inflicting a heavy toll on civilians and Afghan security forces.

This year’s Taleban offensive marks the first fighting season in which Afghan forces will battle the insurgents without the full support of US-led foreign combat troops.

NATO’s combat mission formally ended in December but a small follow-up foreign force has stayed on to train and support local security personnel.

Previous efforts to open channels of communication, including the establishment of a Taleban political office in Qatar in 2013 as part of a USsponsored push to promote talks, have led nowhere.

The Taleban have, if anything, recently shown more desire to fight than to talk. Last week, Taleban fighters entered the outer districts of a northerly provincial capital, Kunduz.

The Taleban’s official spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, confirmed that an eight-strong Taleban delegation would attend a conference in Qatar this weekend organised by the Pugwash Council, a global organisation that promotes dialogue to resolve conflicts and won the 1995 Nobel Peace Prize.

But he said its attendance “does not mean at all peace talks or negotiations”.

However, a senior Taleban official in Qatar, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there would be face-to-face meetings between Afghan and Taleban officials.

He said he had attended high-level meetings discussing which Afghan officials, as well as some from Pakistan and other countries, the Taliban delegation would and would not directly meet with. “It’s top secret so far,” he said.

Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry could not immediately be reached for comment.