Fresh round of Afghan talks

Fighting continues in Afghanistan and so do talks for bringing peace to the country that has been mired in bloodshed for about 40 years. As part of their spring offensive, the Taliban have been carrying out attacks across the war-torn country, having killed dozens of Afghan security personnel, besides US troops, since the start of the ongoing month. And now they control and influence more territory than at any point since 2001 when they were ousted from power by the US-led forces. On the talks front too, the Taliban have been progressing in line with their targets, having conceded nothing so far on the US demands.

The US seeks peace in the form of a permanent ceasefire to be announced by the Taliban, as well as political settlement through an intra-Afghan dialogue, but there has been “no proper progress” on either count so far, if Zalmay Khalilzad, the US Special Representa¬tive for Afghan Reconcilia¬tion, is to be quoted. The demands of the Taliban are strictly focused on the withdrawal of the US troops from Afghanistan, and they don’t either seem to be prepared to accept the Ghani administration as a stakeholder, having pulled out of what was going to be the first-ever interaction between the representatives of Kabul and the Taliban — in Doha on April 20 and 22.

It is against this backdrop that Khalilzad — accompanied by US Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Alice Wells — has arrived in the region for a fresh round of talks with hopes of some meaningful takeaways. While Washington wants peace first to give it the possibility of withdrawal, the Taliban are persistent on the other way round, being well aware of President Trump’s impatience about coming good on his election promise in time for the fast approaching 2020 vote. Well, the huge cost of war — $45 billion annually, according to estimates — is another serious consideration.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 30^th, 2019.

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