Resumption of Afghan peace talks on the cards

Negotiations between Kabul, Taliban will be kept secret

ISLAMABAD: After a break of almost three years, direct talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban are expected to resume soon, officials and diplomatic sources in knowledge of the development said on Tuesday.

Preliminary talks between Afghan officials and Taliban representatives are thought to have already taken place at an undisclosed location. Officials of some other countries also attended the crucial parleys.



“The Eid-ul-Fitr ceasefire announced by both the Afghan government and the Taliban was a result of those initial contacts,” said officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

It was for the first time since the 2001 US invasion of Afghanistan that the Taliban had announced a ceasefire. In an unprecedented development, Afghan Taliban fighters and Afghan security forces were seen greeting Eid and taking selfies during the truce.

This prompted Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to extend the ceasefire for another 10 days while renewing the offer of unconditional talks to the Taliban.

Even though the insurgents refused to reciprocate, officials are hopeful that the process of reconciliation would continue.

“A meeting between the Afghan officials and the Taliban is on the cards,” said an official, who refused to divulge further details.

The official said unlike the previous round of talks, this time the negotiations would be held away from the media glare, and an official announcement to this effect would be made once all sides agreed on something tangible.

The Afghan government and the Taliban held the first-ever direct talks in 2015 in Pakistan. The landmark negotiations were attended by representatives from Pakistan, China and the US.

After the initial progress, talks could not move forward after the news of the death of the Taliban supreme leader Mullah Omar was leaked to the media.



Pakistan at that time expressed serious concerns and accused certain Afghan elements of leaking the news with a view to sabotaging the talks.

“It was because of this reason that the talks this time will take place away from the public eye,” said the official.

Like in the past, this time too Pakistan and some other regional players played a central role in reviving the moribund reconciliation process.

Islamabad and Kabul held both overt and covert meetings over the past several weeks to find a common ground.

The difficult task was to identify the ‘reconcilable elements’ within the Taliban. Another issue was Pakistan’s longstanding concern over the presence of the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and its affiliates on the Afghan soil.

Pakistan has expressed willingness to support the Afghan reconciliation process but at the same time urged Afghanistan and the US to eliminate the TTP and other such groups on the other side of the border.

After Pakistan and China’s ‘tireless efforts’ that helped pave the way for the Eid truce, the US and Afghanistan returned the favour by eliminating TTP chief Mullah Fazlullah in a drone strike on June 13.

Observers believe that the killing of Pakistan’s most-wanted terrorist, who for so long found refuge across the border, was not an isolated event and should be seen in the context of overall efforts to find a peaceful solution to the lingering Afghan conflict.

Diplomatic sources said Pakistan would nudge the Taliban to come to the negotiating table while at the same time help the Afghan government take decisive action against the elements not willing to reconcile.