Daily Times

The Taliban militia has announced that it will be meeting envoys from the United States (US) next week in Pakistan – about a week before another round of negotiations is set to kick off in Doha on February 25. However, the US has stated that it has not received any formal invitation for the talks. Meanwhile, Islamabad has also not confirmed anything yet. Though in his statement, Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid expressed a desire to meet directly with incumbent Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan to discuss the future of bilateral ties between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

A few days prior to this, the Taliban had announced that they wish to deal with Pakistan as a “brotherly neighbour”, while rubbishing claims that they had only entered peace talks with Washington out of pressure from Islamabad. However, this may not be the case. As talks between US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and the Taliban hit a snag last month, Pakistan took action by arresting senior Taliban military commander Hafiz Mohibullah – who had been involved in the ongoing negotiations – in Peshawar and followed up with raids on other Taliban hideouts.

While the Taliban continue to refuse to negotiate with the government in Kabul on the grounds that they are a puppet administration installed by the US, both Islamabad and Washington wish for the Ashraf Ghani regime to have a place at the negotiation table. Should this not happen and all US troops are removed from Afghanistan before the Taliban and Kabul reach some sort of agreement, it could mean Afghanistan could descend into another civil war like it did in 1990s. This would only add to Washington’s embarrassment over the fiasco that the longest war in American history has become, while for Pakistan it could end up being a far more serious disaster.

For these reasons, Islamabad should consider whether hosting any negotiations proposed by the Taliban to which representatives from Kabul are not invited would be in the region’s best interest. Pakistan and the US should continue pushing for an endgame in Afghanistan that would be acceptable to all players in the region rather than completely sidelining the government in Kabul as the Taliban would prefer. Because unless a democratically elected, internationally recognised government which Afghans voted for despite threats of Taliban suicide attacks is involved in the negotiations, the ongoing peace process cannot be considered to have any representation of the Afghan people. In the long run, this might only mean more violence. *

Published in Daily Times, February 16^th 2019.