KABUL : Kabul officials said that negotiations with the Taliban had not reached a stalemate, despite both sides disagreeing on a mechanism for the crucial intra-Afghan talks that end in a month.
“One month on since the talks began in Qatar, we have not been able to agree (on the road map for the talks), yes; however the key part is that we still talk formally and informally,” Nader Nadery, a government-appointed negotiator told local media from Doha, Qatar.
“None of us (the Taliban and government teams) have said that ‘we have stopped meeting and we will not meet,’ that has not happened, and we are working to meet soon,” he said. The long-delayed negotiations, which began on Sept. 12 in the Qatari capital, are a crucial part of a historic deal signed between Washington and the Taliban in February this year and include a pledge by US President Donald Trump to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan and work toward ending America’s longest war.
Striking an optimistic note, Najia Anwari, a spokesman for the Afghan government’s Peace Ministry in Kabul, said that there “was no deadlock in the talks” and that the peace process “after so many years of war, will always be complicated and would require time.”
“We are trying to enter into the negotiations with a good method and hopefully will in the coming days finalize the road map and hammer out the differences of views that have existed between the Taliban and government negotiators,” she told media.
However, a source familiar with the matter and requesting anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media, said that a “supporting group” comprising mediators and diplomats from foreign countries, based in Qatar, were planning to intervene if no progress was made in settling the differences that have delayed the start of the main talks so far.
A spokesman for the Taliban was unavailable for comment when contacted, says the Qatari media. The intra-Afghan talks coincide with an internal dispute among government leaders in Kabul over the negotiations, as well as the recent escalation in bloody attacks across the country. Government officials have long maintained that the Taliban have stepped up their attacks since the signing of the February accord with the US, and intensified them after the start of the intra-Afghan talks.
However, unlike in the past, they “do not publicly take credit for it” now. Examples of high-profile attacks include an assassination attempt on the governor of the eastern Laghman province last week, which killed eight people, and a massive bomb attack outside a government compound in the adjacent Nangarhar province, which left 15 people dead.
On Saturday, Afghanistan’s intelligence agency said that the Haqqani network, considered the backbone of the Taliban’s military wing — in collaboration with Daesh — was responsible for an attack on first VP Amrullah Saleh in Kabul last month.
Tariq Aryan, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said on Sunday that “contrary to the past, the Taliban have certainly increased their attacks” since the Qatar talks began. Abdul Satar Saadat, a former adviser to Ghani, told the Qatari media that after signing the deal with Washington, the Taliban consider themselves as “victors of war.” TLTP
