Hurdles to peace

The ink had not even dried on the US-Taliban peace agreement when massive hurdles in maintaining it first began to appear. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who was not involved in the peace talks, has rejected a core Taliban demand for the release of some 5,000 of their prisoners. The prisoner release is a Taliban precondition for negotiations with the Afghan government. The deal between the US and the Taliban, signed on Saturday, committed both sides to work towards the release of combat and political prisoners as a confidence-building measure.

For their part, the Taliban agreed to release around 1,000 Afghan government captives by March 10. A Taliban spokesman also made clear that while the prisoner release is a precondition to any talks, the numbers are somewhat negotiable. "If our 5,000 prisoners — 100 or 200 more or less does not matter — do not get released there will be no intra-Afghan talks."  The same Taliban spokesman also claimed that the majority of prisoners on the list of 5,000 had been captured by US forces and transferred to Afghan government prisons. They said they had prioritised sick and older prisoners.

For his part, President Ghani has made an odd claim to justify his refusal to release any prisoners. He claimed on Sunday that US President Donald Trump had not asked for the release of the prisoners.
But given that the peace deal was signed on behalf of the US President, it should be clear that he has indeed given his approval for the release. It would also be wise for Ghani to remember that few people outside Afghanistan, or even inside it, see him as anything but a US pawn. His government is incapable of surviving without foreign aid. His permission and his positions are irrelevant. That is why the Taliban and the US sidelined his government from the talks. This is just a last-ditch effort to try and appear relevant.

Unfortunately, thirst for power and relevance could make Ghani into a significant spoiler for the Afghan people, who have been the ultimate losers in over four decades of war.