The greater objective must be the establishment of constructive peace.
DHAHRAN, SAUDI ARABIA: The Afghan Taliban office in Doha opened less than a month ago on June 18 and is closed now. The bone of contention was the flag and the plaque that the Afghan Taliban used at the office, which was strongly objected to by the Hamid Karzai government in Kabul. President Karzai had called using the Taliban flag and plaque of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, equivalent to running a parallel embassy. Subsequently, the Qatar government took off both last month after the US had also objected to the use of the flag and the plaque.
Earlier, the opening of this office for a dialogue among the US, the Karzai government and the Taliban, had generated hope for some kind of peace to be established in the country after the US and its allies leave by the end of 2014. For the time being, that hope seems dashed. A Taliban representative in Doha is reported to have said that all communication with their negotiators has snapped. On the other hand, President Karzai’s office in Kabul has issued a statement and called upon the Taliban to choose the path of peace instead of opting for death and destruction. There are assessments that closure of the Taliban office may be a temporary spell and that things may switch back to negotiations, but who knows how the whole situation is going to unfold. The greater objective must be the establishment of constructive peace, which is a formidable goal to achieve and which has eluded the region for many decades. Trivialities must not be allowed to come in the way of achieving this goal.
Shaukat Ali
Published in The Express Tribune, July 11th, 2013.
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