Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Afghanistan has announced it will stay away from the September 4 meeting of regional countries in Russia, saying the country will not be part of any initiative which is not under Afghans’ ownership.

An Afghan Foreign Ministry statement also described as “unnecessary” the participation of Taliban’s political representatives in the moot, which Russia said would enable participating countries to come together in order to facilitate the launch of national reconciliation in Afghanistan and put an end to the war there.

The meeting, which will be attended by senior diplomats from China, India, Iran, Pakistan and ex-Soviet Central Asian nations, is viewed by many as an opportunity for Afghan officials to have informal interaction with political envoys of Taliban at a time when the Taliban are unwilling to talk to the Kabul administration.

Afghanistan’s boycott came a day after a State Department spokesman said that the United States would not take part in the meeting, “as the talks are unlikely to yield any progress towards a peace settlement”.

The US had also skipped a similar meeting in Moscow in April 2017 when the Russian initiative received support of the regional countries for a political solution to the conflict in Afghanistan, which has direct and serious impact on Afghanistan’s neighbours, especially after the emergence of Daesh.

The Russian Foreign Ministry angrily reacted to the US refusal to attend the meeting.

“The decision by the US stresses yet again the false nature of Washington’s rhetoric regarding Afghanistan, where people over the past 17 years have had to endure and are still experiencing so much suffering and losses resulting from US policy towards this country,” a Russian Foreign Ministry statement said this week.

On August 22, the Afghan Taliban formally announced to attend the Moscow meeting to “explain the stance of the Islamic Emirate about the Afghan problem”.

“This is just an informative meeting and the participants will be apprised of the policy of the Islamic Emirate about the Afghan conflict. There will be no decision in the conference and the Islamic Emirate will have a chance to take part in the meeting,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a brief statement.

He said that the Russian Foreign Ministry had invited the Taliban and the Taliban delegation would be led by head of the political office in Qatar Sher Abbas Stanikzai.

Published in Daily Times, August 25^th 2018.