Peace talks on Afghanistan in Qatar postponed indefinitely

The Qatari government which is hosting peace talks with the US, Taliban and Afghan representatives announced that the talks are postponed indefinitely as they never even started even though they were scheduled to begin earlier this week.

A big blow to peace efforts

US and Taliban representatives have been working for months to arrange the talks. The Taliban refuse to negotiate with the Afghan government as they consider it a puppet of the United States. This is probably behind the problems as the Afghan government has been a drag on the process. This move may have stopped the process altogether. It certainly has for now as no dates to resume the talks have been set.

The probable cause of the situation

The Afghan government appointed a large 250 member delegation but when they arrived at the airport the government stopped their departure. No reason was given for the action. Some signs are the Afghan president Ghani was annoyed that many of those chosen to attend the talks were not his direct allies. The delegation included many other political factions other than his own and his allies. No doubt without such a selection the Taliban would not have agreed to the talks. A Taliban spokesperson also complained of the size of the delegation. A commentator on the appended video suggests this as part of the cause for the talks not taking place.

Another account of the situation

Another article notes that Sultan Barakat who is director of the Qatar Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies which is sponsoring the talks said the postponement was necessary to build further confidence as to who should participate in the talks.

The talks were scheduled to begin on Friday and were considered a significant step in finding a solution to end the war and for the eventual withdrawal of US troops ending America's longest lasting war.

A senior official claimed that the problem was that Afghan President Ashraf Ghani opposed a list of participants announced by Barakat's organization, a list of 243 people announced by Qatar on Thursday. Ghani has submitted his own list of 250 people which an official said contained many more women. No doubt they along with the others were allies of Ghani. The Taliban will not recognize any officials sent as part of the government except as ordinary Afghans. A Taliban spokesperson questioned the size of the delegation.

It seems clear that Afghan government will sabotage the talks if president Ghani does not get the Afghan representatives he wants to be there. However, if he does it is not clear the Taliban will agree to the talks. Perhaps there will be pressure on Ghani to agree to a compromise as it seems reasonable that groups other than Ghani's allies should represent Afghans at the talks. If all the Afghans are Ghani supporters it is not clear that even if the Taliban accept them that there would be any progress possible. It is clear that a consensus about which Afghans and how many should take part in the talks is needed.

Published earlier in Digital Journal

Karzai demands NATO stay in major bases by year's end

In a double blow to the NATO mission in Afghanistan Karzai demanded that the U.S. confine its troops to major bases by 2013 and the Taliban have suspended ongoing peace talks. Both the U.S. and NATO have been trying to arrange talks with the Taliban for two years and the recent talks showed some signs of progress. However the Taliban have as a condition of an agreement that NATO forces withdraw.
The Karzai declaration would hasten the transition to Afghans taking control for security but it would also prevent any attempts by the U.S. and special forces to attack the Taliban and increase village security.
The Taliban have withdrawn from talks because they claim the U.S. has changed preconditions for the talks. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has just left Afghanistan after two days of talks including with president Karzai. Apparently Karzai's statement was a surprise. NATO and the U.S. will be furious. However, Karzai has been at loggerheads with NATO and the U.S. rather often. He may very well back down or more likely just not carry through with his demand. In his meeting with Panetta, Karzai did not bring up the issue of the transfer of the soldier accused in the killing spree to Kuwait. Afghan legislators have demanded he be tried in Afghanistan.

Secret Taliban Peace bid..

Of course the official line of the U.S. is that there will be no negotiations with terrorists. However it is clear that if the Taliban are willing to give up the fight they will even get posts in the government. There are already reformed Taliban in the government and Afghan democracy allows the death penalty for Muslims who should have the temerity for converting to Christianity and also kicks a female legislator out of parliament for pointing out that former warlords and human rights violators are part of the govenment! The occupiers certainly haven't died in vain.

Revealed: secret Taliban peace bid
Saudis are sponsoring a peace dialogue involving a former senior member of the hardline group
Jason Burke in Kabul
The Observer,
Sunday September 28 2008
Article history

The destroyed entrance gate of the Kandahar prison that was attacked by Taliban militants in June this year. Photograph: Allauddiin Khan/AP
The Taliban have been engaged in secret talks about ending the conflict in Afghanistan in a wide-ranging 'peace process' sponsored by Saudi Arabia and supported by Britain, The Observer can reveal.
The unprecedented negotiations involve a senior former member of the hardline Islamist movement travelling between Kabul, the bases of the Taliban senior leadership in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and European capitals. Britain has provided logistic and diplomatic support for the talks - despite official statements that negotiations can be held only with Taliban who are ready to renounce, or have renounced, violence.
Sources in Afghanistan confirmed the controversial talks, though they said that in recent weeks they had 'lost momentum'. According to Afghan government officials in Kabul, the intensity of the fighting this summer has been one factor. Another is the inconsistency of the Taliban's demands.
'They keep changing what they are asking for. One day it is one thing, the next another,' one Afghan government adviser with knowledge of the negotiations said. One aim of the initiative is to drive a wedge between Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
Last week the French Prime Minister, François Fillon, referred indirectly to the talks during a parliamentary debate on Afghanistan. 'We must explore ways of separating the international jihadists from those who are acting more for nationalist or tribal motives. Efforts in this direction are being led by Sunni [Muslim] countries such as Saudi Arabia,' he said.
This summer's fighting season in Afghanistan has been the most violent since the invasion of 2001. The deterioration of the situation has provoked a major review of strategy among the 40-nation international coalition pitted against an increasingly confident and effective insurgency.
Although there have been low-level contacts with individual Taliban commanders at district level before, the Saudi initiative is the first attempt to talk to the Taliban leadership council based in or around the south-west Pakistan city of Quetta, known as the 'Quetta Shura'.
The talks started in the summer and have been brokered by Saudi Arabia at the invitation of the Afghan government. The go-between has spent weeks ferrying lists of demands and counter-demands between the Afghan capital, Riyadh and Quetta. He has also visited London to speak to Foreign Office and MI6 personnel. A delegation from Saudi intelligence has also visited Kabul.
The Taliban are understood to have submitted a list of 11 conditions for ending hostilities, which include demands to be allowed to run key ministries and a programmed withdrawal of western troops.
In Kabul, President Hamid Karzai's national security adviser, Zalmay Rasul, has been in charge of the negotiations. It is understood that Karzai has yet to make a formal response to the demands, leading to frustration among some western officials.
The Observer has also learnt of a separate exchange of letters in the summer between Karzai and the Taliban ally Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. The dialogue proved fruitless.
Late last year Karzai said he would welcome the chance to speak directly to Hekmatyar and to Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban's leader and one of the most wanted men in the world, promising that if the Taliban demanded a 'department in this or in that ministry or ... a position as deputy minister' in exchange for ending violence, he would give them the posts.
Previously Taliban spokesmen have said that only the departure of foreign troops, the institution of a fiercely rigorous interpretation of sharia law and a share of government would be acceptable to them as the basis for any deal.
A Foreign Office spokesman said yesterday that he had no knowledge of the 'Saudi initiative', as it is known in diplomatic circles, but that the British government 'actively supported the Afghan government's reconciliation process', which was 'part and parcel of the counter-insurgency campaign'.
In another development, The Observer has learnt that the British government is considering increasing the length of tours served by troops in Afghanistan. The Ministry of Defence confirmed last week that tours for senior soldiers in key command positions are set to be extended from six months to a year.
'We are looking at increasing tour lengths for a small number of headquarters posts ... with the aim of creating greater continuity in key positions,' an MoD spokesman said.
Although the MoD denied any plans to extend other service personnel's combat tours in Afghanistan, the idea of troops deployed to the area serving nine months was raised recently by the army's director of infantry, Brigadier Richard Dennis, in a speech to senior commanders.
Washington is putting pressure on Nato allies such as Britain to match American troop increases.

UN supports peace talks with Taliban.

These talks are less peace talks than ways to divide the Taliban and have some break off to support the Karzai government. The Taliban will not talk unless all foreign troops are withdrawn so they will not participate in talks. There are already some "reformed" Taliban who support the Karzai government. In fact that is what "reformed" seems to mean. They still have all the same radical views about the imposition of Sharia law etc. Even the department of Virtue and Vice has returned.


UN supports peace talks between Afghan government, Taliban
Last Updated: Friday, September 21, 2007 | 11:44 PM ET
The Associated Press
The United Nations would support peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban and is prepared to help mediate, a key UN envoy said Friday.

Tom Koenigs of Germany, ahead of a high-level meeting to support the government that will include the United States and Iran, said that negotiations won't produce "a quick result" but are essential.

"We from the United Nations will certainly support peace talks because the insurgency cannot be won over by military means only," he said. "We have to keep the door open for negotiations."

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has pressed for open talks with the Taliban, and the group initially seemed willing. But Taliban leadership returned with conditions that would kill chances for talks — that U.S. and NATO troops withdraw and Islamic law be re-employed in Afghanistan.

The UN doesn't expect the "hard core" of the Taliban to negotiate, "but there are certainly tribes who are alienated, maybe even by misgovernance, who can be brought back," Koenigs told a news conference.

He said the UN can mediate, for instance, between tribes that are fighting for the government and tribes that are fighting for the Taliban.

Continue Article

Efforts to bring peace to Afghanistan will be high on the agenda at Sunday's meeting, which will be chaired by Karzai and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and will bring together donor nations, the U.S., NATO countries, Afghanistan's neighbours, the European Union and international lending institutions.

This week, the UN Security Council extended the mandate of the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Afghanistan to almost 40,000 troops in the face of an emboldened insurgency led by the country's former Taliban rulers.

The United States maintains about 13,000 troops in a separate counterinsurgency force.

© The Canadian Press, 2007