Obstacle to peace

As the Afghan stalemate drags on, it is wholly unremarkable to find slightly odd players engaged in the effort to broker a peace settlement in Afghanistan. Ordinarily, such a development ought to have pleased Kabul no end as the inclusion of Russia — hardly a novice in global affairs and a country that can draw its own rich insights from friendships and interactions made during its decade-long presence in Afghanistan — adds considerable weight to peace-making initiatives. Moscow’s fresh overture to the Taliban, however, is being looked upon with lingering suspicion by both Kabul and Washington. If anything, the multilateral talks proposed by Russia three months ago would have given a bigger and more suitable platform to address the concerns of all parties. But since Kabul itself was bitterly opposed to the proposal, there was no forward movement at all. Kabul must share some of the blame for torpedoing the peace process. The world, however, should not allow any further disruption or delay in rediscovering the peace trail in Afghanistan, even if that trail passes through Moscow.

In the Afghan government’s case the jitteriness is caused by the fact that Moscow has invited a group of senior Afghan politicians to talk with the Taliban and conveniently left out direct government representatives. To them this reflects a lack of distrust in Kabul and could be interpreted as a desire to isolate the Afghan government. Of course this is only partly true because as the world knows backchannel dialogue doesn’t need to directly involve all the parties in a conflict. The aim is to lure them to the negotiating table, not scare them away. Otherwise, as we have seen in so many previous instances, the process would simply fall apart. Afghanistan can ill afford to lose any more chances to build durable peace.


Published in The Express Tribune, November 4^th, 2018.