Daily Times

US special envoy Zalamy Khalilzad has said that violence and prisoner issues have created obstacles for the intra-Afghan negotiations, but hoped that the peace process is likely start in coming weeks.

Khalilzad was speaking to an online forum in Washington arranged by the United States Institute of Peace, a day after Taliban political office spokesman Suhail Shaheen offered to start intra-Afghan dialogue immediately after Eid-ul-Azha if remaining Taliban are released in accordance with the Doha agreement.

Although Khalilzad mentioned violence as one of the hurdles in the way of the negotiations involving Afghans, he said there had been reduction in violence this year compared to that in the last year.

The US envoy’s statement is an apparent contradiction of claims made by the Afghan government officials who say Taliban have increased attacks after signing of the Taliban-US agreement in February.

Afghan ambassador to US Roya Rahmani, Uzbekistan’s ambassador to US, Javlon Vakhabov, and Kazakhstan’s ambassador to US Erzhan Kazykhanov also took part in the discussions via video link.

“This year, the number of Afghan security forces killed is between 35 and 40% less than the same period in last year, and the number of civilians killed is also significantly lower for the same period compared to the last year’s,” Khalilzad said.

Taliban have also rejected Kabul’s assertion about the violence and describe it as the Kabul administration’s excuses to ‘harm the peace process’.

The US envoy was confident about the start of the intra-Afghan negotiations despite challenges. “I am hoping that as we move closer to intra-Afghan negotiations, which I hope will happen in the coming weeks, that violence will be less than it is now,” he said.

Khalilzad was satisfied at the release of prisoners and said the Afghan government had released more than 4,400 insurgent prisoners out of the promised 5,000 in its custody. “In turn, the Taliban have released 861 from the objective of 1,000 Afghan forces,” he said. “Most of the distance has been travelled in this difficult road but the last mile remains very challenging,” he said, adding that the US is committed to working with both sides to help complete the prisoner release so that intra-Afghan negotiations could begin.

Under the US-Taliban agreement, up to 5,000 Taliban would be freed by the Afghan agreement while Taliban would release up to 1000. Kabul has now raised objections at nearly 600 Taliban prisoners and say they were involved in major crimes including murder and their release pardon by families of the victims.

The US envoy said the US-Taliban agreement entered the second phase on July 14. In the first phase the US reduced the troops to the level of 8000s in 135 days and withdrew troops from five military bases. “But the withdrawal is very much conditions-based and we will see whether the Taliban honour their commitments, because our decisions, our commitments, are contingent on their commitment,” Khalilzad said.

The US envoy said Russia, China, the UN Security Council have expressed support for the Afghan peace process, however, Iran does not back the Taliban-US deal and insists that the US should leave Afghanistan without return of peace. “War is a huge burden on the people of Afghanistan. It is a burden on the international community especially on the US. With the agreement signed by the US with the Taliban, the next step is intra-Afghan negotiations,” he said, adding that no American and coalition soldier has been killed in Afghanistan since the agreement has been signed by the Taliban with the US.