Daily Times

Afghan Taliban said on Sunday that meetings of their negotiation team with US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on February 18 in Islamabad had been postponed due to “travel curbs” on their leaders. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said earlier that Taliban political envoys would meet Khalilzad and Imran Khan in Islamabad on February 18

“The Islamic Emirate had planned participation of its members in talks with US negotiating team in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad which has been postponed due to inclusion of most of the members of our negotiation team in black list maintained by the US and the UN,” a Taliban statement said. “It must be mentioned that responsibility for postponement of this event does not devolve upon the Islamic Emirate since we had made all arrangements,” it said.

The statement rejected reports that the meetings were postponed by the Taliban or there had been other reasons.

Earlier, the Taliban had stated that they had received a formal invitation by the government of Pakistan for a meeting between their negotiation teams and United States in Islamabad.

A Pakistani official also confirmed cancellation of the meetings in Islamabad.

The Taliban spokesman had also stated that the next round of formal talks with the US envoy would resume on February 25 in Doha, the capital of Qatar as per the agreement reached during the previous meeting.

The Taliban negotiators and Khalilzad last met in Qatar in January and the Taliban political officials said both sides had agreed to discuss the issues of the withdrawal of the foreign forces and to prevent Afghanistan from being used against the US and other countries.

Taliban political spokesman Suhail Shaheen told the media this week that Afghan Taliban and the United States had constituted two joint working groups to devise a strategy about the withdrawal of the US-led foreign troops and to prevent Afghanistan from being used against other countries.

Shaheen said the joint groups would prepare reports for the next round of talks in Doha. Taliban last week announced a 14-member new negotiating team that includes six members from the Taliban powerful leadership council.

A Taliban statement said the negotiation team to be led by Sher Abbas Stanekzai also includes five senior members who were freed from the American prison at Guantanamo Bay in 2014.

The Taliban announced cancellation of the meetings in Pakistan a day after beleaguered Afghan government complained to the UN about the Taliban negotiation team’s visit to Pakistan, reports said. Reports said the Afghan mission in the UN had handed over a letter to the UN Security Council’s sanctions committee.

The letter says that Taliban pose threats to Afghanistan’s peace and stability and that nine members of the Taliban delegations are on the UN sanctions list and that the reports of the Taliban visit to Pakistan is a matter of concern for the Afghan government and the people. Pakistan was likely to host a meeting between the political envoys of the Afghan Taliban and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman in Islamabad, officials said Saturday. In another development, the Taliban spokesman rejected as “baseless and propaganda” reports that Pakistan had arrested head of the Taliban political commission Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.

Published in Daily Times, February 18^th 2019.