Glimmer of hope in Afghanistan

There is a genuine reason to be optimistic about the possibility of peace returning to Afghanistan after nearly two decades of war. Both the US and the Afghan Taliban have cited ‘progress’ in their marathon talks held in Doha recently. There are certain factors that have brought the US and the Taliban to the negotiating table. First, Washington has finally realised that it cannot win the perpetual war in Afghanistan by the use of force. Second, the Taliban, who may have control or influence in over 60 per cent of the territory, know they can’t take over Kabul by the force of gun either. And then there is pressure on the insurgent group from countries such as Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE to accept the political solution to the lingering unrest in Afghanistan.

Here Pakistan, which has often been accused by the US and Afghanistan of not doing enough to convince the Taliban for talks, deserves lot of credit for breaking the stalemate. The Doha talks and the previous round held in Abu Dhabi were facilitated by Pakistan. Islamabad is making sincere efforts because it is well aware of the fact that the absence of a negotiated settlement of the conflict in Afghanistan will have bad consequences for the country. Pakistan has already suffered too much because of the continued instability in the neighbouring country.

What we know so far about the outcome of the recent parleys is that the Taliban have been demanding a clear timeline of US troop withdrawal while Washington has been seeking firm guarantees that the Afghan soil would never be used again by terrorist outfits such as al Qaeda and Daesh. But other issues such as the future makeup of political dispensation and more importantly whether the Afghan government and the Taliban would share power are still unaddressed.

This means that despite forward movement in talks, there are still many obstacles in the way of achieving peace in Afghanistan. On top of it, deadlock still persists between the US and the Taliban over the inclusion of Afghan government in the delicate reconciliation process.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 29^th, 2019.

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