Daily Times

President Ashraf Ghani this week confirmed that Kabul and Islamabad have, for the first time ever, inked an agreement to combat terrorism in his country. And while details have yet to be made public — this is a welcome move. Not least because it has been negotiated at a bilateral level.  And yet the US appears to be stuck in a loop, calling on Pakistan to do, more, more, more to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table.

Yet Washington must surely realise that all the other ‘players’ have moved the needle forward. Ghani did his bit by calling a unilateral ceasefire to coincide with Eid. This was ultimately extended to 17 days in total. The Taliban also played their part by reciprocating with a ceasefire of their own; albeit for a limited three-day period. Nevertheless, it gave ordinary Afghans a glimpse of what real peace might look like. It also, as Ghani reiterated in a piece for the New York Times last week, debunked the myth that close to four decades of warfare waged by occupying powers has left the country so fragmented as to render reconciliation nigh on impossible.

And herein lies the crux of the problem. The US views the war in terms of the last 17 years only. Whereas as Afghanistan has been living under intermittent foreign military occupation for the last 40; with Washington deeply involved in the offensive to rid the country of the Soviet presence. That is, an entire generation has grown up without knowing peace and security. Is it any little wonder therefore that the people of that country are striving towards out-of-the-box thinking?

Indeed, one such recommendation worth due consideration comes from Gulbuddin Hekmatyar; a man who twice served as Prime Minister of Afghanistan before reinventing himself a CIA-funded warlord. Some two years ago he re-entered the mainstream in a deal brokered by Ghani. And Hekmatyar’s vision focuses on establishing peace zones for the Taliban to facilitate the return of those who are currently outside the country. This, he contends, would do away with the group maintaining offices in, say, Qatar. Critical to this is the suggestion that the Taliban would be free to establish their own system of governance within designated areas; which would, significantly, be free from foreign troop deployment. The Afghan president is said to be open to this proposal. Indeed, it serves as a solid compromise between the two sides.

All of which serves to underscore how the US remains the circle in the square. It continues to flat out refuse to entertain the Taliban request for direct talks as a prelude to talking to Kabul. This cannot go on. Not if peace is to ever have a real chance of materialising. And certainly not when all other stakeholders are doing their bit.  *

Published in Daily Times, July 3^rd 2018.