Moscow talks

If the govt in Kabul is not directly involved, do talks, or the government, have any legitimacy?

How far we have come. Less than 30 years ago, it was the Mujahideen meeting in Washington to plan how to overthrow the Soviet client regime in Kabul.

Many of those American allies later became the Taliban — enemies of the United States when the Americans decided to invade Afghanistan. Today, we have a meeting in Moscow which ostensibly undermines the US-backed regime in Kabul.

Senior Afghan opposition politicians, including former president Hamid Karzai, met a Taliban delegation for talks described as ‘fruitful’, with a Taliban representative hoping for more such meetings was one of the attendees.

The talks were problematic, at the very least, for the government in Kabul, as they show how utterly powerless the Afghan central government is.

President Ashraf Ghani may have been quick to dismiss the talks, saying that they carried no executive power, but will he take any action against the participants other than issuing statements?

He should, because right now, the situation is this — the opposition, which in theory holds no authority to govern, is holding ‘peace talks’ with declared enemies of the state, and will likely skate through without any possible punishment.

The government was also excluded from the Taliban’s peace talks with the US in Doha, although in that case, it may be fairer to say that the Taliban just wanted to cut out the middleman and talk to those calling the shots.

As for developments in the recent talks, the head of the Taliban delegation has hinted at a softening in the Taliban’s positions on women’s rights, but at the same time, rejected the Afghan constitution outright. They now claim that they do not want a monopoly on power, but merely an ‘inclusive Islamic system’.

Although it is a good omen that the Taliban are taking part in intra-Afghan talks, the question remains: If the government in Kabul is not directly involved, do the talks, or for that matter, the government, have any legitimacy?

Published in The Express Tribune, February 7^th, 2019.

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