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KABUL: Meetings held between Taliban and US officials with one scheduled to be held today (Monday) in the Persian Gulf state of Qatar, do not help intra-Afghan dialogues, political analysts say.
The Afghan Institute of War and Peace says such meetings could not pave the ground for a long-time ceasefire to end war in Afghanistan.
The fifth round of talks between US and Taliban representatives is expected to discuss facilitating intra-Afghan talks and a ceasefire agreement.
Hekmat Azimi head of the Institute of War and Peace in Afghanistan said Sunday that the Qatar meeting would vastly focus on US troops’ withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“I think that this meeting wouldn’t facilitate a ceasefire agreement and an intra-Afghan dialogue,” he said. “The victory and failure of the talks belong to these two issues: intra-Afghan dialogue and ceasefire agreement.”
He added that if Taliban’s co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar was present in the Doha meeting, then there were optimisms that the talks would give positive results. Mullah Baradar was freed after being held in Pakistan custody for 10 years and was immediately appointed by the group’s leader as head of its political office based in Qatar.
The Taliban representatives and some Afghan influential figures met in a two-day long of talks in Moscow, but the meeting was seriously opposed by the Afghan government.
The intra-Afghan dialogue is a controversial issue in the peace process, with the militants frequently refusing to sit with delegation from Kabul, calling the government as a “US puppet”.
Now, the Afghan government says that its delegation would not participate in such meetings unless there is a guarantee for intra-Afghan dialogues.
Sayed Akbar Agha, a former official of the Taliban emphasized that the US troops’ withdrawal from Afghanistan would be considered in the Qatar meeting.
“Taliban has stopped talks over ceasefire and direct talks with the government because it wants to receive confidence over US troops withdrawal from Afghanistan and this issue (US troops withdrawal) would be considered in the coming meetings as well,” he said.
He called cease fire between Afghan government and Taliban is an important issue.
But how long would be the Qatar meeting is not clear yet.
The high peace council has urged that time shouldn’t be considered for good result of the peace talks.
