Afghan government frozen out of Moscow peace talks with the Taliban
KABUL - Taliban representatives and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s political rivals plan to discuss the future of Afghanistan Tuesday in Moscow, a move seen by some as a further blow to the authority of the country’s current administration.
The two-day meeting brings key Afghan power brokers together with the insurgents to discuss ending the war that began with the ouster of the Taliban from power in late 2001 and follows up on an earlier such meeting in Moscow in November.
The Moscow talks follow a series of direct negotiations between Taliban members and U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad amid a renewed push by President Trump to withdraw troops from Afghanistan.
Officials of Ghani’s government were excluded from all of those meetings because of the Taliban’s objection to direct talks with an administration it regards as a U.S. puppet. According to two Afghan dailies, Kabul’s absence from the Moscow gathering further “isolates Ghani” and “sabotages the authority of the government.”
Among Afghans invited to the gathering are former President Hamid Karzai; Haneef Atmar, national security adviser to Ghani until late last summer and his key rival in July’s presidential election; and a number of factional leaders such as Ismail Khan, Mohammed Mohaqeq and Atta Mohammad Noor.
The Afghan government has described the meeting as “not in the interest of Afghanistan and the efforts for peace process,” and it accused Moscow of failing to fulfill its past pledge to facilitate direct talks between its officials and Taliban members.
The Russian Embassy in Kabul said the gathering was an intra-afghan dialogue to discuss ways of ending the war. The meeting, to be held in a Moscow hotel, was organized by Afghan refugees living in Russia, it said.
Like the Taliban, Moscow has been insisting on a pullout of U.s.-led troops from Afghanistan.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov embarked on a tour of Central Asian countries this week, coinciding with the Moscow talks.
Beginning Sunday, Lavrov will visit the former Soviet republics of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, meeting the leadership of each country and navigating the security landscape in light of Trump’s stated intention to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan.
Moscow is considering establishing a second military base in Kyrgyzstan and wishes to bolster security along the southern flanks of Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, which share a border with Afghanistan.
Ahead of his journey, Karzai, the former Afghan president who has forged closer ties with Moscow in recent years, said he will carry to the Taliban a message of peace, unity and sovereignty and will emphasize that all Afghan men and women need to progress. Atmar, a former communist, said in a statement that the Afghan nonstate actors will try to make future such meetings more inclusive and involve the government as well.
The Taliban’s longtime negotiator, Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai, who has taken part in all rounds of discussions between the insurgents and Khalilzad among other U.S. diplomats in recent months, will lead the Taliban delegation in Moscow. The U.S.-Taliban talks have revolved around a pullout of foreign troops in return for a guarantee from the insurgents that Afghan soil will not be used against U.S. interests by militant groups such as al-qaeda and affiliates of the Islamic State.
Members of Ghani’s administration have spoken about their frustration and anger over behind-the-scenes discussions between the Taliban and Khalilzad.
Ghani wants the peace process to be led and owned by his government. His opponents say the incumbent has alienated much of the country’s political elite, including some of those who helped bring him to power.
They argue that Ghani seeks to spoil this rare opening for peace and that his resistance derives from a fear that if talks progress, he could lose his chance for five more years in power.
Khalilzad has said that one of his main goals is to facilitate direct talks between Ghani and the Taliban. For now, the Taliban is hesitant to sit at the same table with Afghan government officials because the insurgents view such face-to-face talks as giving Ghani concessions ahead of the presidential election this summer.