Ghani calls Afghan Taliban ‘political opponents’

Afghan leader offers direct talks as insurgents reiterate their preconditions

ISLAMABAD:

Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani has offered direct talks with the Afghan Taliban referring to them as political opponents, as the insurgents reiterated their pre-conditions for joining peace talks aimed at ending a 15-year civil war.

Ghani’s message was conveyed during a two-day meeting in Qatar organised by the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs -- a Nobel peace prize-winning crisis group -- to resolve the war in Afghanistan.



Attendees included some former Afghan officials, including Umar Daudzai, Anwarul Haq Ahadi and Dr Farouq Azam. The Taliban were represented by their Qatar office chief Sher Abbas Stanekzai and his deputy Abdul Salam Hanafi.

The message, Taliban sources told The Express Tribune, had apparently been sent by acting Afghan Defence Minister Masoom Stanekzai and carried by Abdul Qayyum Kochi, an uncle of Ghani.

Officially, the Afghan government and its High Peace Council had stayed away from the Qatar conference claiming it was unnecessary in the presence of a recently launched quadrilateral process which includes Afghanistan, Pakistan, the US and China.

The Afghan Taliban, who have so far rejected talks with the Afghan government, reiterated their demand to speak to the Americans first along with fulfilment of a few pre-conditions.



“Some preliminary steps should be taken prior to starting peace talks because without them, progress towards peace is not feasible,” reads the Taliban statement which was presented at the conference.

They went on to seek the release of some prisoners, removal from a United Nation blacklist freezing their assets and imposing a travel ban on its leaders, and to have their political office in Doha formally recognised.

“Establishment of official venue for the Islamic Emirate; removal of blacklist and prize list; release of prisoners and ending poisonous propaganda are among the preliminary steps needed for peace.”

The Taliban had opened an office in Qatar in June 2013 as a first move towards a possible peace deal. But it shut just a month later after enraging the then-Afghan president Hamid Karzai by styling itself as the unofficial embassy for a parallel government by using the group’s white flag and sign of the ‘Islamic Emirate’ that the Taliban had used during their rule.

Despite the closure of the office, Taliban negotiators remained in Qatar but have continued boycotting the office since Kabul has yet to withdraw its objections, a Taliban member of the office told The Express Tribune.

Islamabad, Kabul need to tackle Taliban together: US


The Qatar office has disowned the much-publicised talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government in Murree in July 2015. In their latest statement, the Taliban reiterated its importance. “The political office of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is the only authorised and responsible entity assigned by the Islamic Emirate to carry out talks.”

Published in The Express Tribune, January 25^th,  2016.