Policy shift?: Kabul relents, sets terms for Doha talks

Foreign ministry spokesperson says it’ll be unacceptable if the Taliban released by Pakistan rejoin insurgency .

ISLAMABAD:

In an apparent policy twist, the Afghan government said on Sunday that it was willing for peace talks with the Taliban through their ‘political office’ in the Gulf emirate of Qatar if the ultraorthodox militia meets its two preconditions.

The Taliban had closed down their office in Doha and called off the fledgling process after President Hamid Karzai objected to the Taliban flag and a sign identifying the militia as the ‘Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’.

Speaking at a weekly media briefing, Afghan foreign ministry spokesman Janan Mosazai said the Karzai administration was ready to start peace negotiations if the Taliban accepted its two preconditions. The transcript of the briefing was emailed to The Express Tribune.

“The first condition is that the (Taliban) office should be used only for negotiations not for any other activities and the office should not be named as the political office of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,” he said.

Secondly, there should be direct contracts between authorised Taliban representatives and the Afghan High Peace Council, Mosazai added. The Taliban don’t accept the Afghan government as legitimate and calls Karzai a ‘US puppet’.

Mosazai, however, said the government preferred opening a Taliban office in Saudi Arabia or Turkey after the Doha office failed to produce any results.

The development came a day after Pakistan released seven Taliban prisoners in an effort to facilitate the Afghan peace and reconciliation process.

The Afghan government said on Sunday that it will be unacceptable if the released Taliban rejoin the deadly insurgency. “If the Taliban are freed [by Pakistan] and they go back to the battlefield, it is unacceptable to the government of Afghanistan,” Mosazai said.

A section of the international and Afghan media claims that some of the Taliban released by Pakistan earlier had joined their comrades in insurgency.

“It’s a good step if the release of Taliban prisoners facilitates their return to peaceful life,” he added. He was quizzed that none of the freed Taliban inmates has been handed over either to the Afghan Embassy in Islamabad or any Afghan consulate in Pakistanis cities.

Mosazai recognised Pakistan’s key role in the Afghan reconciliation process, saying that Kabul expects Islamabad will take more and big steps to support the peace process in Afghanistan. “Pakistan has a key role in supporting the Afghan peace process and the Pakistani leaders committed their peace role during President Karzai’s recent visit to Islamabad,” he recalled.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 9^th, 2013.