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Afghan delegation travels to Pakistan for Taliban talks Afghan delegation travels to Pakistan for Taliban talks
(35 minutes later)
An Afghan delegation has travelled to Islamabad in the latest attempt to start peace talks with the Taliban, officials said on Tuesday, though there was no confirmation the militants would take part. An Afghan peace delegation arrived in the Pakistani capital on Tuesday for what officials described as “negotiations with the Taliban” even as Kabul was hit by two separate suicide attacks.
In recent months there have been several informal meetings between the Taliban and Afghan officials from varied political backgrounds at venues outside Afghanistan, but little concrete progress appears to have been made. Few details were made public save for a Twitter post from the office of Afghan president Ashraf Ghani saying the group comprised members of the High Peace Council, a body set up in five years ago to negotiate with the Taliban.
The Taliban’s annual offensive is in full swing, with two bomb attacks in Kabul on Tuesday, even as tentative efforts are being made to negotiate an end to their 13-year insurgency. While Pakistan’s foreign office spokesman said he knew nothing about the talks, an intelligence official said discussions between the two sides would take place over iftar – the sunset meal that for Muslims marks the end of a day’s fast during the month of Ramadan.
“A delegation from the high peace council of Afghanistan has traveled to Pakistan for negotiations with the Taliban,” read a statement posted on the official Twitter account of the Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani. The evening talks were set to take place after another day of bloodshed in Kabul where a suicide car bomber targeted a NATO vehicle, injuring three people. Later in the day one guard was killed at an office of the Afghan spy agency when three insurgents attempted to storm the building.
The high peace council (HPC) is the body tasked with opening negotiations with the militants. The latest attacks of an already bloody summer highlighted the urgency with which President Ghani has been pursuing efforts to open talks with the Taliban.
Sayed Zafar Hashemi, Ghani’s deputy spokesman, confirmed the announcement and said the delegation was being led by the deputy foreign minister, Hekmat Khalil Karzai. Although most observers agree only a political settlement can reduce the violence Ghani has been severely criticised at home for his attempts to enlist the support of Pakistan to help broker talks with the Taliban as many Afghans hold the country responsible for backing the Taliban in the first place.
Hashemi gave no details of the expected length of talks, subjects to be discussed or Taliban participation. That Tuesday’s talks were due to be held in Islamabad could help Ghani answer some of his domestic critics who have argued his tilt towards Pakistan has failed to produce results.
Official efforts to reopen peace negotiations with the Taliban have so far borne little fruit, but informal talks have taken place in the recent past behind a veil of secrecy. Ghani’s government was particularly criticised for signing an intelligence sharing agreement with Pakistan’s spy agency, which is especially hated in Afghanistan.
The Taliban last month admitted taking part in informal talks in Norway with an Afghan delegation, reportedly made up of women. A Pakistani official said the Afghan delegation included deputy foreign minister Hekmat Karzai, a nephew of former president Hamid Karzai who has become a fierce behind the scenes critic of Ghani’s efforts to improve relations with Pakistan.
And at another round of informal meetings in Qatar in May, activists said Taliban delegates, long condemned for their misogynistic ideology and lack of respect for human rights, pledged support for women’s education and their right to work in “male-dominated professions”. There were no details about who comprised the Taliban delegation.
The Taliban have laid down hardline preconditions for taking part in full-blown negotiations, stressing the need for the complete departure of foreign troops from Afghan soil. Afghan government officials have met members of the Taliban before but the movement has never acknowledged them as anything more than informal contacts.
Nato ended its combat mission against the militants at the end of December but a smaller force has stayed on for training and counter-terrorism operations. After Pakistan’s national security adviser revealed last month that the two sides had held talks in the Chinese city of Urumqi the Taliban’s spokesman insisted those involved had not been authorised to speak on behalf of the movement.
In recent weeks Pakistan itself has warned of the limits of any negotiation given the Taliban is split, with field commanders increasingly unwilling to accept orders from a leadership based outside Afghanistan.
Further complicating any potential peace process is the rise of a wing of Islamic State in Afghanistna which has succeeded in attracting the support of disillusioned Taliban fighters.
By being seen to talk to the Afghan government the Taliban could risk losing more men to Islamic State, some analysts have warned.