Afghan peace negotiations have begun in Doha, but the participants seem to have run into stumbling blocks quite early on. And while disagreements between warring factions so staunchly opposed to each other are not entirely surprising, they do tend to take the initiative away from those parties that are pushing desperately for the war to end. The main enablers of the talks – countries like the US and Pakistan – are also finding out that their leverage has greatly diminished if not completely run out at this stage. For now is the time when the Afghans are going to decide on a governance system for their own country, and while they are or should be grateful to everybody who helped put together these peace talks, they would rather work it out among themselves from here. Yet that does not change the fact that the Americans ae perhaps the most desperate party when it comes to ending the war. And that is because of the US presidential election due in just over a month. In fact, if it weren’t for this compulsion, there is nothing to suggest that Washington would have broken with almost two decades of war policy and begun sudden talks with the Taliban. But the limiting thing about American influence is that it has little say beyond the formal Afghan government, and that too because it finances everything that Kabul does or builds. So everybody is still a little confused, to put it very mildly, when it comes to making the Taliban bend to some of the demands that they don’t particularly like. Hopefully any early disagreements will be overcome sooner rather than later. One can be sure that much tougher issues will have to be ironed out as time goes on. And if talks can break down just at the start over what are, according to press reports, very minor issues, one can only imagine what is likely to happen when the more controversial topics are addressed. Both negotiating parties must therefore keep the doors to outside counsel open. Nobody would want to be pushed into a corner because of lack of flexibility so soon in the process. No doubt the negotiators realise that a majority of Afghans have never really seen peace, and it is their responsibility now to deliver it. *