File photo of Hamid Karzai PHOTO: AFP/FILE
Karzai's trip to Qatar would represent the first time the Afghan president has discussed the Taliban peace process in Qatar, and comes after years of stalled discussions with the United States, Pakistan and the Taliban.
The announcement was made only hours after another thorny issue in the U.S.-Afghan relationship -- the transfer to Afghan control of the last group of prisoners at the Bagram military complex held by U.S. forces -- appeared to be resolved. The Pentagon announced on Saturday that a deal had been clinched.
Karzai's Qatar trip was announced by Foreign Ministry spokesman Janan Mosazai.
"President Karzai will discuss the peace process and the opening of a (Taliban) office for the purposes of conducting negotiations with Afghanistan," he said.
Karzai was expected to travel to Qatar within a week, a senior Afghan official speaking on condition of anonymity told Reuters.
The announcement comes several weeks after Karzai delivered a fiery speech during the first visit to Afghanistan by new U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, in which he accused Washington of holding peace talks with the Taliban in Qatar without him.
Karzai also accused the Taliban of colluding with America to keep foreign troops in the country, marking a fresh low point in the relationship between the Afghan president and his most powerful backer.
Mosazai confirmed the agreement reached on the transfer of detainees held at the military detention facility at Bagram in Parwan province north of Kabul.
The issue of detainees at Bagram had become another stress point in Karzai's relations with Washington. A ceremony formally transferring the last prisoners to Afghan custody collapsed two weeks ago after Karzai rejected part of the deal.
American forces control an area of the prison adjacent to the Bagram military complex, which holds several dozen Taliban fighters considered by the United States to pose the most severe threat.
Washington is concerned the Afghans may release some of these men when control of the prison is handed over.
That concern was reinforced during Karzai's outburst this month, in which he said the United States had been dragging its heels on prisoner transfers and said he would release those detainees that were "innocent".
Under the terms of agreement, all Afghans detained by forces of the U.S.-led coalition would now have to be handed over to Afghan control within 96 hours of capture, Mosazai said. Any decision to release them after that would be made only by the Afghan government.
The United States last year agreed to hand over responsibility for most of the more than 3,000 detainees at the prison to Afghanistan and held a transfer ceremony in September.
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@Ahjiz Baynawa
"If Karzai is learning to be modest he is coming close to the reality of his own humble representative position. He should stop behaving like a senior in his relationship with Pakistan and adopt an arrogance-free attitude to earn Pakistan’s support without which there would be innumerable impediments to peace in Afghanistan. Pakistan’s diplomats are seasoned and Karzai should listen to their advice in the interest of good relations with Pakistan and for improving the prospects of peace in Afghanistan. Without Pakistan’s support Karzai would not be effective and is likely to fade into insignificance."
Pakistan's diplomats are seasoned because they engage in factional politics and employing the use of proxies as their only bargaining chip, which is blackmail not diplomacy. Karzai sees right through this duplicity and calls Pakistan on their deceptive politics.
Karzai is respected by Afghans across the board for seeking a just and lasting peace in the region but he keeps getting rebuffed by Pakistan because he refuses to bend to the outrageous demands of Pakistan.
Afghan diplomats are more seasoned than their Pakistani counterparts and they don't come to the negotiating table with delusions of grandeur despite being two hundred years older than the state of Pakistan.
It is not just Karzai and the Taliban. After all , we all know that President Karzai will have to bow out soon and let someone else be the next elected president.
WHAT POLICIES WILL THE NEXT GOVERNMENT and the NEXT PRESIDENT follow ???
Is their a national all-Afghan consensus ?
Most Afghans do not want interference from neighbours, nor a Taliban come-back.
If Karzai is learning to be modest he is coming close to the reality of his own humble representative position. He should stop behaving like a senior in his relationship with Pakistan and adopt an arrogance-free attitude to earn Pakistan's support without which there would be innumerable impediments to peace in Afghanistan. Pakistan's diplomats are seasoned and Karzai should listen to their advice in the interest of good relations with Pakistan and for improving the prospects of peace in Afghanistan. Without Pakistan's support Karzai would not be effective and is likely to fade into insignificance.
Very wise! President Karzai seems to understand that aliens from outer space or angels from heavens will not solve the problems faced by the region. May be the Pakistani establishment (Bureaucracy and GHQ) can learn a thing or two from him! Pakistan is in a unique and unenviable position where it is either in open conflict or at best in an unfriendly state of relationship with all it's neighbours; except may be with China. This may also be tenuous because of the desires of Hamid Gul type Strategic Depth mafiosos of Pakistan who want to hoist Islamic empire flag from Spain to Kashgar.
I have a strong feeling that Afghanistan is destined to be a great country in near future.