Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Russia has inched towards a bigger role in Afghanistan with its offer to host peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban insurgents to find out a negotiated settlement of one of the world’s major problems.

Russia is seemed successful in its strategy to win the support of key players for its regional peace initiative. Afghanistan, which had initially deep suspicions, about the Russian diplomatic efforts and some analysts called the move as a new “great game” when Russia hosted Chinese and Pakistani diplomats in late December.

There had earlier been serious suspicions among Afghans when Russia hosted the first trilateral meeting of Pakistan and Chinese diplomats in December and some commentators called the move as a new “Great Game”. However, the Russian offer for the peace negotiations could help improve the image of Russia in Afghanistan as the war weary Afghans have a trust for peace at a time when the fighting season is about to start.

In spite of skepticism in Afghanistan and the lukewarm U.S. response, Russian officials are defending its new diplomacy in view of its growing concern longer presence of the US-led foreign forces, the continuation of war and threats from Da’ish or the Islamic State to the Central Asian states and to Russia itself.

Russians are seemed upbeat at its contacts with the Taliban political representatives, who some Taliban leaders insist are now the frequent visitors of Moscow. Some Taliban sources have confided to the writer that Taliban envoys last visited Moscow in December. As Taliban are anxious to find more allies, they have found Russia as well as Iran. Russia joined China to publicly support removal of international sanctions from the Taliban in December, the move quickly welcomed by the Taliban Qatar office as recognizing “the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is a political and military force.” No other country has ever showed such support for the Taliban repeated calls for lifting of sanctions.

President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy for Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, told Bloomberg in Moscow on March 31 that Russia supports the Taliban’s demand for foreign troops to leave Afghanistan. Kabul was a little upset at Russia’s stance on the foreign troops as majority of the Afghan leaders support the presence of the foreign troops unless the Taliban put a stop on armed resistance.

Kabulov, who is the main character behind the move to bring the Taliban closer to Russia, has told diplomats in the previous two meetings it had hosted in December and February that his county would use its contacts with the Taliban for peace and security in the region and political process.

He had initially floated the idea in the six-nation meeting in Moscow to invite the Taliban political representatives to join the Moscow-led process; however, Kabul disagreed and insisted Afghans should lead any initiative for direct talks with the Taliban rather than others. However, it seems Kabul has now adopted a positive approach towards Russian offer to broker the Kabul-Taliban talks.

Afghan Foreign Ministry’s spokesman Ahmad Shakib Mostaghni did not reject Moscow’s offer that indicates a change in Kabul approach towards the Russian’s regional initiative to push for political dialogue in the war-ravaged country.

Mostaghni said this week that the participants agreed with Kabul’s suggestion that the “region should reach to a concrete consensus on Afghanistan and send a strong message to the Taliban that the way forward is dialogue and not violence.”

The US declined to attend on the plea that it was not consulted before the invitation was sent and that it did not know about the agenda, the US officials were quoted as telling the media. Many may not agree with this notion.

The US could be in a fix over what is thought to be Russian aggressive diplomacy to help in the reconciliation between the Taliban and the two-headed government in Kabul. The US could face criticism if it stays away from the Russian-led process which is now has the backing of all regional countries.

The April 14 meeting, which was third Russia has hosted since December, was attended by senior diplomats from Afghanistan, China, India, Iran, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

The war weary Afghans have a thirst for peace and all these factors could influence to shift its focus from the military option to the political process. Taliban have repeatedly insisted on direct talks with the U.S. in first phase to discuss a time frame for the withdrawal of its forces.

Majority in Afghanistan are disagreed with the Taliban’s approach as they believe intra-Afghan dialogue is the only option. They are right as Hizb-e-islami (Hekmatyar) struck the peace deal in September after a series of talks.