Nineteen years after the September 11 terror attacks in the United States led to a bloody conflict that ravaged Afghanistan and killed tens of thousands of people, talks designed to bring peace to the country are set to begin.
Afghan government officials, Taliban extremists, and U.S. officials have begun arriving in the Qatari capital, Doha, for the negotiations that are scheduled to begin on September 12.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Afghan government negotiators arrived in Doha on September 11. Washington helped broker the on-and-off peace talks in Qatar, where the Taliban has a representative office.
Pompeo declared the talks a “historic” opportunity to end America’s longest war.
“I’m mindful of how difficult these conversations will be among the Afghans, but it’s theirs for the taking,” he told reporters during his flight to the Qatari capital.
Abdullah Abdullah, an Afghan former minister who is leading the peace negotiations, said that “I hope this is a historic day and the beginning of a big change.“
“Afghanistan’s problems have no military solutions, that is why we are going to talk,” he added.
Experts say that, despite the initial optimism, the talks could prove to be lengthy and acrimonious.
“The negotiations will have to tackle a range of profound questions about the kind of country Afghans want,” Deborah Lyons, the UN Special Representative for Afghanistan, told the UN Security Council this month.
An inauguration ceremony is scheduled to open the negotiating sessions, with Pompeo set to attend.
President Donald Trump made the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan a promise before the 2016 presidential election. In the countdown to this November’s presidential polls, Washington has ramped up pressure to start intra-Afghan negotiations.
At a news conference on September 10, Trump called the talks “exciting” and said Washington expected to be down to 4,000 troops by November. Even though delays have plagued the start of negotiations, Washington began withdrawing some of its 13,000 troops after the February 29 deal was signed. Pompeo warned of spoilers to peace, citing recent targeted killings in Afghanistan and an attempted assassination earlier this week of Afghan Vice President Amrullah Saleh.
The Afghan delegation includes Abdullah, who heads the High Council for National Reconciliation, the powerful umbrella group that will oversee the negotiation team headed by former intelligence chief Mohammed Masoom Stanikzai. Abdullah’s appointment to head the council was part of a power sharing deal with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, ending their months of squabbling over the results of controversial presidential polls the year before.
The Taliban negotiating team is led by Abdul Hakim Ishaqzai, a hardline cleric who spent years lying low in Pakistan’s southwestern city of Quetta, where the Afghan
Taliban leadership has been based since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 toppled the extremist group from power in Afghanistan.
A European diplomat in Kabul told Reuters that a comprehensive cease-fire — which the Taliban have so far rejected — should be a priority of the talks.
“The Taliban leaders will have to stop fighters from attacking Afghan forces and civilians, violence continues to degrade the atmosphere and potentially derail negotiations,” the diplomat said.
Many people in Afghanistan fear a return of the Taliban as part of a governing arrangement. The extremist group was accused of human rights violations and abuse of women during its years of rule, which ended when U.S. forces invaded and drove the extremists from power in 2001.
The Taliban controlled Afghanistan at the time and harbored Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the attacks.
Since being driven from power, the extremists have regrouped and have been waging an insurgency. They now control much of the country.
The American-led led coalition now mainly trains and advises Afghan troops and conducts counterterrorism actions.
The deal foresees the gradual withdrawal of all international forces in exchange for the Taliban’s renunciation of terrorism.
More than 2,300 U.S. troops have been killed in Afghanistan since 2001.
With reporting by RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan, Reuters and dpa
[#Pakistan News Update]
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