Daily Times

Whether Afghan President Hamid Karzai was earnestly searching for a broad based approval for a way forward for Afghanistan post the US withdrawal in 2014, or whether he was merely looking to bolster his negotiating power with the US, the much touted Loya Jirga that concluded after four days in Kabul yesterday appeared to have achieved neither end. The conditional endorsement by the Jirga for thousands of US troops to be based in Afghanistan post-2014 was rejected out of hand by the Taliban. Labelling the Jirga as a ‘show’ orchestrated by the Karzai regime and attended by ‘active government workers’, the Taliban essentially reiterated their demand for complete withdrawal of US forces from the country. More importantly, the Jirga’s consensus on ‘peace talks’ with those Taliban factions or elements that renounce violence was also rejected. Interestingly, the conditions of the Jirga for the ‘strategic partnership’ with the US that would allow the deeply unpopular American boots on the ground for an indefinite period, appear more symbolic than real. A stop to night raids, and a promise to ‘side with Afghanistan’ in case of war with a third country appear strangely weak conditions for the concessions being offered the Americans.

It appears the Karzai government’s attempts at reconciliation and pushing for a road map vis-à-vis the Taliban post-US withdrawal are becoming more desperate with time, and the Taliban now smell blood. The desperation was manifest in the olive branch of ‘peace talks’ being offered to the Taliban through the Jirga yet again, so soon after ex-President Burhanuddin Rabbani’s assassination at their hands. Rabbani was killed in a suicide attack at a meeting ostensibly being held with a Taliban representative for peace talks. Immediately after the assassination, Karzai had declared he wouldn’t be talking to the Taliban till he had an address for them, instead dealing only with Pakistan — a clear hint at Pakistan’s involvement in the assassination and its obstruction of Afghan-led peace talks.

The spokesman of Afghanistan’s National Directorate for Security Lutfullah Mashal has alleged that militants including the Haqqani and other Taliban groups and ‘regional intelligence groups’ had planned suicide and car bomb attacks at the Loya Jirga, which had been foiled, with hand grenades, explosives, suicide vests and long range rockets having been seized in several areas in Kabul. If true, the fate of the Jirga and its stratagems was sealed long before the Taliban formally rejected them. As long as the Taliban are assured of continuing support, whether material or logistical, from ‘regional’ intelligence agencies, they have no reason to come to any settlement and will continue the waiting game. President Karzai would be better advised to expend his energies on lobbying to sever extra-Afghan support for the Taliban, and working towards non-interference by outside powers, be they regional or global. He needs to claim Afghanistan for the Afghans. *