Daily Times

Taliban political office head Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar joined negotiations with the US officials in Qatar on Monday to resolve differences over a draft agreement, Taliban sources in Qatar said.

Taliban had earlier indicated reaching an agreement with the US on a timeframe for the withdrawal of foreign troops and the Taliban assurance to prevent Afghanistan from being used against the US, its allies and any other country. However, they could not reach any deal until late Monday. Earlier, a message shared with Taliban officials indicated that a decision of the Qatar talks could be announced on Monday that will be a ‘success for the Islamic Emirate’. Sources say the current round of talks was scheduled to continue for three days and Monday was the last day. But now Taliban sources say the talks will continue on Tuesday as well.

Baradar also met US chief negotiator Zalmay Khalilzad at the venue of the talks to finalize the deal, Taliban officials said. Sher Abbas Stanekzai is leading the Taliban team and Baradar joined the talks for the first time in three days.

Meanwhile, Taliban spokesman in Qatar Suhail Shaheen said negotiations with Afghan sides will start after a timeframe for the withdrawal of foreign troops is announced in the presence of international guarantors. “But there will be no talks with the Kabul administration in its official capacity,” he tweeted, a day after the Afghan Foreign Ministry announced that Germany will host the representatives of the Taliban and the Afghan government this month.

Afghan Foreign Ministry Sibghatullah Ahmadi had told reporters in Kabul on Sunday that direct talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government could begin within two weeks.

Both sides are also trying to remove differences as whether the word ‘Islamic Emirate’ or Taliban will be used in the draft agreement, sources said, adding that the US opposes the use of Islamic Emirate. The Taliban had been insisting on the use of the Islamic Emirate, which they used during their rule since 1996 to 2001. The use of Islamic Emirate for their political office in Qatar in 2013 had annoyed former president Hamid Karzai, whose protest led to the closure of the office days after its opening.

Taliban and the US had agreed on a draft during the last round in May about the troop withdrawal and terrorism, and sources now say they are introducing amendments and rewriting the draft. As the Taliban and the US are trying to finalize the peace deal during the ongoing talks, efforts are underway for the intra-Afghan dialogue to decide the future set up of Afghanistan.

Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen had earlier told Daily Times that Germany, Uzbekistan and Indonesia had offered to host intra-Afghan dialogue but they have not yet agreed to the their proposals.

Daily Times has learnt that Pakistan had invited Taliban to attend a conference on Afghan peace in Bhurban on June 23 but they declined the invitation.

Senior Afghan leaders including Hizb-e-Islami chief engineer Hekmatyar, who had taken part in the Bhurban meeting, had met Prime Minister Imran Khan and sought his help in intra-Afghan dialogue. “I and other members of the delegation had requested Prime Minister Imran Khan to encourage the Taliban join the talks with the Kabul government. But if the Taliban are not agreed they should first sit with Afghan political leaders, who can decide about the intra-Afghan dialogue,” Hekmatyar told Daily Times in Islamabad last week.