The US interlocutor for the Afghan-Taliban talks, Zalmay Khalilzad, pays a brief visit to India on Tuesday for talks with Foreign Minister S Jaishankar on the intra-Afghan talks that began in Doha on Sunday, six months later. A prisoner swap and continued Taliban offensive against high-value targets in Kabul were agreed to as planned.
Zalmay, the US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation, is scheduled to arrive in Islamabad on Monday to stress to the Imran Khan government the need to reduce violence in Afghanistan if talks with the Taliban are to end 19-year-old violence succeed.
The US interlocutor wants to make sure that Rawalpindi headquarters take steps to keep the Taliban on track in the peace talks. It is widely believed that the Taliban, had they not been under US military pressure, would rather take the country militarily and turn it into an Islamic emirate as they had done in 1996.
Also read: Afghan forces and Taliban continue to clash even as peace talks begin
At the opening ceremony for the talks on Sunday, the Afghan government and its allies, including the United States, called for a ceasefire. Abdullah Abdullah, the head of the Afghan government’s peace process, said the Taliban could offer a ceasefire in exchange for the release of more of their imprisoned fighters. But the Taliban did not mention a truce when they came to the negotiating table.
“Today the first meeting between the contact groups of the two negotiating teams took place. In this code of conduct for the meeting between the two parties, the schedules of the next meetings and relevant issues were discussed and progress was made, ”Ahmad Nader Naderi, a member of the government’s negotiating team, said on Twitter on Sunday.
In addition to the United States, Afghanistan, the Taliban and Qatar, which is hosting the talks, the weekend’s discussions were also attended by representatives of India, Pakistan, Russia, Germany, Indonesia, Uzbekistan, Norway and the United Nations.
People familiar with the matter said that this is the first time that India has participated in intra-Afghan talks at the ministry of foreign affairs level with Deputy Secretary (Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran) JP Singh leading a delegation to Doha from Qatar that includes Deepak Mittal. the Indian ambassador to Qatar and an expert on Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Also read: ‘The peace process must be led, owned and controlled by Afghanistan’: India
According to diplomats in Doha and New Delhi, Zalmay, on his short four-hour trip to India, will share details of the Afghan peace process and appreciate India’s constructive role in Kabul over the past 20 years.
Pakistan has been deeply concerned about India’s participation in the intra-Afghan talks in Doha, but the United States, its other allies, and the Afghan government have deeply appreciated India’s rebuilding effort.
The 21-member Afghan government negotiating team was led by Masoom Stanekzai, a former intelligence chief. The Taliban were led by Mawlavi Abdul Hakim, the Chief Justice of the terrorist group and a close associate of the group’s chief, Haibatullah Akhunzada.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was in Doha for the opening ceremony, said the negotiations would be difficult. “Without a doubt, we will find many challenges in the talks over the next few days, weeks and months,” Pompeo said, calling on the parties to the conflict to “seize this opportunity” to ensure peace.
Zalmay Khalilzad told Afghanistan’s TOLO News that there are indeed some people in Afghanistan who prefer the current situation to peace with the Taliban, while some try to keep Washington involved in the war so that it can pay the price.
“It is not acceptable and there is a solution for every problem, and you have to find a solution. We are ready to help if the interests of the country come first and personal interests do not come first. I am confident that a solution will be found and we will not allow personal interests to prevail. This is America’s promise to the people of Afghanistan, ”Khalilzad said.
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