The clock is ticking

President Ghani referred to the Taliban for perhaps the first time as his “political opponents”

In an interview aired on January 25 on BBC, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said that the two months, March and April, were going to be crucial to the future of Afghanistan for generations to come. If the Taliban could not be brought to the negotiating table in that window, then the fighting season would get into gear, the struggle between the Taliban and the Islamic State within Afghanistan would intensify, and the fleeting chances of peace all but lost.

A similar message will also have been given and received in the course of a two-day meeting in Qatar organised by the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs. President Ghani was a delegate to the moot and offered direct talks with the Taliban, referring to them for perhaps the first time as his “political opponents” — something of a paradigm shift in the confused swirl of Afghan politics. For their part, the Taliban let it be known that if the rest of the world wanted to talk to them, then it should be on the same terms as everybody else that is a party to the Afghan imbroglio. Specifically, the Taliban want the playing field levelled in their favour, with the removal of travel restrictions, freeing of their assets, the release of several prisoners and the formal recognition of their office in Doha that has existed in a kind of limbo for the last three years. The Pugwash talks were ‘unofficial’ as the Afghan government claimed they were unnecessary as the recently launched quadrilateral mechanism involving China, Pakistan, the US and Afghanistan rendered other processes redundant. This is obviously not the case and it must be no surprise that the Taliban want to be playing with the same deck as others in the game. Political realities seem to be dawning for President Ghani who is in the unenviable position of presiding over (yet another) endgame in Afghanistan. But be careful what you give the Taliban, and don’t bother with a watch as they have all the time in the world.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 30^th,  2016.

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